Beneath the surface
by Aatiyki
Summary: Its been 8 years since the Buu saga, and the Earth is yet again in the path of destruction. The Z-fighters must come together again to protect their planet from demise, but can they do it this time? Featuring Teenage Goten and Trunks, ch. 10 up!
1. Chapter 1 A Disturbing Discovery

Dragon Ball Z Fan fiction

Beneath the Surface

(this script in no way follows the set story line for Dragon Ball Z, it is set in the time the elapses between the end of DBZ and the beginning of DBGT, all the things that occurred before this time, including movie events, still hold true, but anything after is yet to be determined. Enjoy!)

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, or any of its characters. The only ones that belong to me are the ones I make up!

Chapter One: A Disturbing Discovery

It was early in the morning, daylight was delicately breaking as Goku awoke beside his wife. He knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now that he had seen the sun begin to peak over the horizon, so he lightly crept out of bed to enjoy the view from outside.

__

"Should I wake Chichi so she can see this?" he asked himself. "_No, I will let her sleep, though she really would enjoy this, she hasn't been in the best of moods lately so I won't risk it." _Goku tiptoed to the front door of the house and slipped his body gracefully outside the door without making so much as a squeak.

"_Slick," _he thought to himself, and chuckled softly. The horizon was now stained a vivid orange with baby blue creeping around the edges against the contrasting darkness of the leftover night sky. Goku took in a deep breath, breathing in the freshness of the trees, the flowers, the grass. _"No one could live in a better place," _he thought to himself, and with this thought he began reflecting on the past. The past that included Frieza, the past where Cell was reeking havoc on the Earth, and even the near past where Buu had killed his family and nearly destroyed the Earth for good. "_But they are here and safe now," _Goku reassured himself. "_They are safe now." _Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right. 

He had been experiencing these flashbacks for the past few weeks. Everyday there was some moment where his mind all of a sudden traveled back to times that he would rather forget. He had never thought about them before, so why now? Goku knew that something was about to happen, and he didn't like it. "_Always fighting," _he thought to himself. Yes, fighting was a blast when he was younger, he hadn't been in a battle yet where he wasn't pushed to his limits and beyond. He only got stronger from battle, but then the next opponent was always just as strong as he was, if not stronger. When this occasion arose then Goku would have to resort to intense training to bring himself up to the right level. No doubt, training was fun, especially his training with Gohan during the times of Cell. "_Those were the best times of my life," _he thought to himself. He loved Gohan very much, he thought about how much he loved his son every time he got a chance. "_And now he has a family of his own," _he thought with a smile. Time seemed to fly before his very eyes nowadays.

But then, the time would seem to travel fast. While Goku had been dead for seven years, Gohan grew up, and he had another son, Goten, that he never even knew existed. _" paid a terrible price for fighting," _Goku thought. "_I missed out on Gohan growing up, and I missed out on being Goten's father_." Yes, he benefited from the training he went through with King Kai, and the other world tournament was out of site, but he would trade it all in to have at least been there when Goten was born, or just a little time to find out that Chichi was pregnant so that he would have known, then maybe he would have planned things differently… 

__

"But that is all in the past!" Goku thought again. "_What is important is that we are here now...safe…"_ They weren't safe. Something was coming.

"Hey sleepy head," Chichi whispered from behind, causing Goku to jump about a mile into the air.

"You scared me!" Goku exclaimed, still shaken up that he hadn't even noticed her coming, he usually sensed her, but this time he missed it…

"Shhh, Goten is still asleep," Chichi said quietly. She wrapped her arms around Goku's waist and whispered, "It's been a long time since I've seen the sun rise." The sun was now half way between the horizon and the unknown.

"Same here," Goku replied. *_Stop thinking about that,* _Goku told himself as he held his wife.

"_No matter what, everything is going to be ok."_

*****

"Now don't forget class," Miss Sanyu yelled over the class as they were quickly exiting , "there will be an exam in two weeks over the graphs of trigonometric functions."

"Yada yada," Goten said as he left the class. "I can't believe I let Gohan talk me into taking trig, this class sucks," Goten thought to himself.

"I'll never be ready for that exam," Damasuu said glumly as she passed by Goten. "This stuff is just too confusing ," she huffed as she swung her shiny black hair over her shoulders.

_"She is sooo hot!" _Goten said to himself. "Hey Damasuu," he exclaimed, "I can help you get ready if you like."

"Ha!" Damasuu said haughtily, "if you stayed awake for half the class I might would take you up on your offer, but I'm not that desperate for help." She gave Goten a wink then quickly walked ahead and giggled noisily with some of her girlfriends.

"You'll regret that!," Goten yelled playfully to the back of Damasuu's head. The fact of the matter was, Goten was extremely good at math. He had received an A- on his last exam. He did rather poorly in other subjects, basically because it required a lot of memorization that he didn't have the patience for. Math on the other hand, Goten could handle. For him it didn't require a lot of memory work, only remember a few formulas and he was set. He had the ability to manipulate many different forms of on particular formula to solve whatever problems were dished out to him. His teachers didn't understand how he could do so well in math and fail biology, twice.

"'Sup Goten," a deep voice called from behind.

"Hey Trunks," Goten replied to that all too familiar voice. "Just trying to figure out how I'm gonna get a date with Damasuu." Goten stared longingly in the direction of Damasuu's disappearing form.

"Ha, good luck." Trunks said deviously. Trunks, now a handsome 16 years of age, had grown out of his mini-Vegeta attitude and mellowed a bit. His good looks and laid back attitude were the perfect combination to keep all the young women at his school drooling every time he so much made brief eye-contact with any of them. But his mischievous ways were always lurking in his aura, and surfaced every once in a while, adding a little character to his seemingly perfect existence. "I bet I could get a date with her if I wanted to."

Goten glared at Trunks. "Well you could get a date with the whole planet!" Goten said, as he stood at his locker, stuffing his backpack with books he would never open. As Goten finished preparing to leave, he looked up and began to laugh as he noticed the trail of girls Trunks left behind. "You sure have a way with women Trunks," he said. "What are you doin' that I'm not doin'? Maybe I should dye my hair purple, ya think?"

"Go for it," Trunks muttered as he grabbed Goten's arm and started dragging him down the hall towards the exit. "Hurry before they all follow me home! Yesterday my mom was furious because two girls just straight up followed me into me home, and they wouldn't leave unless I promised to say hi to them today at lunch…girls…"

Thirty minutes later Trunks and Goten were out of dodge of any unwanted followers, so they landed after taking flight as soon as they left school property, and walked in the direction of the Capsule Corps, chatting away about Goten's dream girl. "Seriously," Goten said "you need to ask Damasuu out, she is sooooo hot!"

"But you like her Goten, that wouldn't be right."

"Man I don't care," Goten replied. "It's just that NOBODY has been able to ask Damasuu on a date since she moved here. When was that, a year ago? She's a tease man. She looks good and she knows it, and she flaunts it so that guys like me nearly piss all over ourselves every time she walks by. But everybody knows she likes you Trunks. You're the only guy that has a chance. At least I could say I am the best friend of the guy that dates Damasuu, that will get me some girls!" Truthfully, Goten didn't really have any problems attracting girls, but he couldn't figure out if it was because he had the looks too (which was quite possible, Goten was a handsome guy himself) or because he was Trunk's best friend.

"She is just like the other girls," Trunks murmured, mainly to himself. He was primarily thinking of his relationship with his last girlfriend, which had been a downright mistake. "That's why I don't like her, she's not that pretty anyway."

"You are the only guy that can get away with saying that," Goten said, "'cause you're the only one that can actually turn her down. None of the rest of us can 'cause she don't even like us, plus that aint true, she is fine, and you know it……you're just in denial or something."

"Denial….gimme a break Goten. Denial about what?" Trunks asked.

"Hell I don't know, but something is wrong with you, turnin' Damasuu down, man that's low."

Trunks just laughed at Goten. 

"Seriously Goten, you need to stop thinking about Damasuu. There are other girls that are just as pretty if not better looking' and she probably isn't worth all the time you spend dreamin' about her. I mean she may not have ever had a boyfriend, but that doesn't mean, she….well you know"

"Yeah I know," Goten said with a sigh. "I've heard those rumors a lot. But hell that doesn't change the fact that she's the best looking' girl in our school!"

"You are hopeless Goten, HOPELESS!" Trunks exclaimed as he ruffled Goten's hair.

"Aww c'mon Trunks," Goten said, "you're the most wanted man on campus. You have to like somebody, either that or you're a homo!"

"Well," Trunks said after a brief period of silence, " I have the perfect girl mapped out in my head, but she hasn't come along yet, and I'm not gonna settle for less, not after that awful relationship I had with Sawaar a while back, even if that means that I'm gonna be an old man before I find her. I don't want a relationship like my parent's. Granted, yeah I'm glad they got together or I wouldn't be here, but I wanna be able to talk to my wife, not grunt at her. I have not once seen them in my whole life, sit down and have a real conversation, only arguing every now and then, or they don't speak at all. And my father is forever training, its annoying. I mean, when I was little training was a blast, but now it just gets old. I don't see how he can just train for hours on end…….hey Goten, what's wrong?"

A shadow had passed over Goten's face, he looked very disturbed. "Yo Goten, what's up with you?"

"I was just thinking about my dad," Goten said in a low voice. "When you mentioned yours I started thinking about how he has been acting strange lately. He usually is always up for some sparring, or just talkin' about whatever, but here lately, he's been staring of in space and thinking about stuff. He has never really done that before, not since I've known him anyway. Gohan said he thought a lot before the Cell games, just thinking about stuff and not saying anything, so he thinks something is wrong too."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Trunks said gravely. "Though my dad always stares off in space, he just looks more pissed than usual, and it bothers me a little. But I've found myself thinking about the past a lot myself lately."

"Same here," Goten said, with a little surprise on his face. "Have you been thinking a lot about Buu?"

"Yeah I have actually," Trunks said. "It's like dejavu, that old familiar feeling of something not being right in the air, you know, I can't really explain it."

"You don't have to," Goten said. "I know exactly what you mean."

*****

"And why are we here again Kakarot?" Vegeta asked angrily, the following day in which Goku and Piccolo had called an emergency meeting for the Z-fighters. It had been quite a while since all of the Z-fighters had gathered together, years in fact. The last time that they had come remotely close to having a reunion was during the last World Tournament, the tournament where the Supreme Kai and Kabito showed up with the news about Majin Buu and Babidi. That was over eight years ago. Though that gathering had been purely to have fun in the tournament, a series of devastating events followed, so coming together again could only bring more bad news, if not worse than the last time.

"Jeez why are you so angry Vegeta, its only a meeting," the aging Yamcha piped up. Though Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo were not showing any signs of aging, Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin were looking a little worn around the edges. The worry lines and spots of gray were beginning to show more evident in them than coming any where close to developing in Goku, Piccolo, or Vegeta.

"Well Waves and Rocks was gonna air that stupid Cell program that shows that loud mouthed fool Hurcule defeating Cell and us getting our asses kicked. I just wanted to see it for laughs, that is about the only thing that can make me laugh nowadays. That is why this had better be good Kakarot!" Everyone stared at Vegeta in surprise, but no one caught his sarcasm. Vegeta was actually pre-occupied with the thought of losing training time for some petty meeting.

Videl was holding the now three year old Pan in her lap, and glaring nastily at Vegeta for his rude comments about her father. _"And I'm sitting right here in front of him!"_ she thought angrily.

"What?!?!" Tien exclaimed. "There's a movie about us losing to Cell?" Tien hadn't been at the World Tournament when the mini-movie aired, so he was very surprised to hear of it.

"It's now on Turner Classic Movies since its so old now, ha ha ha ha," Krillin exclaimed, doubled over with laughter. "It should be on a comedy channel."

"I'm glad you all find this funny," Videl said through gritted teeth. Even Gohan had been laughing along with the other fighters at what a joke that movie was, but quickly stopped along with the rest who seemed to just now notice Videl's presence.

"Sorry Videl," Krillin mumbled. Android 18 and Marron where both sitting behind Krillin. Marron, now about 12 years old, was a spitting image of her mother, though she had favored Krillin in her early childhood. The only Z-fighter not present was Chouztu, who decided that whatever was happening, he was staying out of it.

"Is everyone here yet?" Goku asked somewhat impatiently, just as Goten and Trunks waltzed in, Trunks toting Bra on his back. When they saw the somber look upon Goku's face, they quickly took a seat beside Gohan and gave Goku and Piccolo their undivided attention. Chichi and Bulma were lingering behind Gohan as well, as they all directed their attention towards Goku and Piccolo in Master Roshi's front yard.

"Piccolo and I have asked you all here because we have found out that the earth is in danger, again," Goku said gravely. "This attack will take place a few years from now, but this is far greater a threat to us than Buu ever was."

"Well spit it out Kakarot we haven't got all day," Vegeta said impatiently.

"Vegeta," Piccolo said quietly, "we have to tell the whole story so that you will understand the course of action that we have chosen to take."

"Oh great," Vegeta muttered, "we're gonna be here for an eternity."

"Well I'll start off, since I've known about some of this for the longest," Piccolo said. "Brace yourselves, you may not understand some of it at first. This whole situation is about Brolli."

All was quiet. Everyone gave Piccolo a blank stare, Brolli?

"This whole little get-together is because Brolli might come back? Oh please, Goten and Trunks can take him single-handedly, even Krillin helped beat this guy down last time. I can't believe this." Vegeta folded his arms tightly across his chest, apparently annoyed. Krillin glared at Vegeta, quite insulted by his blatant remark. Everyone else seemed to have the same opinion, Brolli, so what's the big deal? Goku looked at Piccolo uneasily, no one was taking this seriously.

"If you all would let me finish, I would appreciate it," Piccolo said quietly, before Vegeta could reply. "That is only half of the story. The fact is, Brolli has been to this planet many times, sometimes he had come and was not even looking for Goku or any of us."

"Oh yeah?" Vegeta interrupted. "Then what the hell was he looking for?"

"Stop interrupting!" Piccolo barked. "You'll never get the full story if you keep cutting me off!" Vegeta's stare turned ice cold, but kept his attention fixed on Piccolo as he proceeded. "As I was saying, Brolli has been here many times, he is a little smarter than he looks. In saying that I mean he had enough intelligence to hide his ki when he didn't want to be found. Now here's the kicker, Brolli has three children, here on Earth."

A gasp swept across the small audience. This seemed to get everyone's attention a bit.

"What the hell?" Goten whispered to Trunks.

"I would have never guessed," Krillin said with a sigh. "That's just wonderful. Three Brolly's running around and a possible return by the man himself, oh that's convenient."

"So he has three kids," Yamcha said, "so what? I'm sure Goku and Vegeta can take them on too. It could be an all out Saiyajin battle, Goku, Gohan, Goten, with Trunks and Vegeta against the Brolli's ahaha, that would be kinda cool don't you think?" Trunks and Goten nodded, a chance to beat Brolli again, this was too good to be true! Goku and Piccolo on the hand, didn't agree.

"Well your turn Goku," Piccolo said after Vegeta's last outburst

"Well ok," Goku said, everyone else quieted down a bit. "I was summoned by King Kai last night, and he told me the whole story. Lord Iriyoku, from a very distant galaxy, a planet called Jepido, which is not even in the quadrant that King Kai looks over, is coming for those kids. Lord Iriyoku is very smart and very patient. Patient meaning that if he doesn't get what he wants the first time, he will wait around until he does, and I mean years. He is packing with him an elite army, that have been trained to track these kids down. They do not know the names of these kids, so they were trained to track down their energy patterns, and this puts our own children at risk, since they give off similar patterns and frequencies. According to King Kai, this guy has been studying Brolli for a long time, he is fascinated with his ability to generate so much energy, and since Brolli is now currently dead, he figures he can use his offspring instead."

"Use them for what?" Gohan asked.

"Well a master plan he has devised. He wants to rule over the east quadrant of the universe, which of course includes the Earth. He has full control over the south quadrant of the universe as it is, and is seeking to expand his power. He also plans on resurrecting Brolli sometime in the near future, as Krillin already predicted." Krillin winced at this remark. 

"These children have not been trained to fight," Goku continued. "They are totally innocent of knowing what they are. They may or may not be aware of the energy and power that they truly have. That is why it would have been a few years before they struck, since it would have taken some time for Iriyoku to whip them into shape. But if Iriyoku is to get a hold of them, and train them, well, King Kai says one of these kids is capable of ascending past the level of SSJ3 if given the proper training. ((keep in mind that this not the GT series so they have never seen SSJ4)) Iriyoku has done his homework as well. He knows all about our bout with Buu, he knows about Majin Buu, and the magic Babidi used to transform his henchmen into much more powerful beings. Iriyoku will make use of this as well. Now King Kai says that one of these kids can ascend past SSJ3 naturally, with the proper training. But what about a combination of the proper training and some Majin magic? No telling how powerful he or she would become." Once Goku mentioned the word 'Majin' everyone tensed up. They had all seen what Majin did to people, with Vegeta being a prime example. It made them stronger and more evil. Brolli already had hatred brewing in himself for Goku, if he went Majin, this could prove to be a much more serious problem. Plus, his children appeared to be stronger than he, to make an SSJ3 go Majin, that was absurd! 

"Why is it that I have suddenly lost my appetite?" Krillin asked morosely, the seriousness of the situation finally sinking in. 

"Generating power like that would cause massive destruction for the whole universe, not just Earth or the east quadrant, whatever that means," Gohan said.

"That's right," Piccolo agreed.

"So what's the plan Kakarot?" Vegeta asked, a solemn look pasted on his face. He looked convinced now.

"King Kai suggests that we find the kids first, and train them ourselves," Goku said. "Killing them wouldn't be right, they don't even know who they are."

"But it would save us a lot of trouble," Vegeta muttered.

"I heard that," Bulma said evenly.

"Train them!" Trunks exclaimed. "Train Brolly's kids, are you serious Goku? What if they are just like him when we do, you know, have some sort of built in will to destroy us after they have reached their potential strengths like Brolly did for you and the rest of us? They are his kids you know, they could have it instilled in them."

"If we get them on our side, it will be harder for Iriyoku to over take them mind wise, and we will have them to fight with us against the lord and his army. His army is very talented, so that fight alone will be challenging, but impossible if Iriyoku has control over those kids. Plus don't forget that I mentioned how patient Iriyoku is and how that is disadvantageous to us. If he fails to defeat us with the kids on our side, he will just hop to another planet and try to gain control, then try to take over Earth again, and will keep coming back until we destroy him. He is not without his own strengths. Unlike Babidi, Iriyoku can hold his own if he is attacked, and the amount of energy he generates himself is unknown to us, so we would be fighting blindly with him, and destroying him will be very difficult, so we will be fighting a continuous battle with him that may last several years. Don't worry Trunks, King Kai said these were actually good kids, they haven't ever hurt anyone, yet anyway."

"And just how are we supposed to find them, in a short period of time because if this Iriyoku guy is on his way, the clock is ticking as we speak," Vegeta stated.

"Well that's going to be kinda hard," Goku said, characteristically scratching the back of his head. "The kids are kinda spread out…they all have different mothers…" Goku paused for a second, deciding whether he should elaborate but then realized everyone got the general idea so he continued on with the information.

"Well we do know something that might help," Goku stated, "we know that Brolly had two daughters and a son, his son being the middle child and the girls being the youngest and oldest."

"We have to pray that they generate a decent amount of energy," Gohan said. "something even a little above a regular human's power level, because we have no names, no descriptions, and only ki, if they have come to the point where they can generate ki at a relatively low, human level, we could pass by them and not even know."

"That is why we must be extra careful when looking for them." Goku answered.

"Hey Mom," Goten asked mischievously, "do I get to miss school for this?"


	2. Chapter 2 Beginning the Hunt

Chapter 2: Beginning the Hunt

"It seems like there are too many holes in your story Kakarot," Vegeta said a few hours later after everyone had calmed down a bit and spread out. Since the battle with Buu eight years prior to the present, 

it was known that Vegeta had admitted his inferiority to Goku's strength. Over the years since then, Vegeta had also become a bit more tolerable and a little easier to be around. His frown softened up (though it was still there) and he just appeared to be slightly less intimidating than before. Bulma noticed the change the most, and speculated that it might have been because Bra was born. Nevertheless though, Vegeta continued to train like there was no tomorrow. He even tried to get Trunks into the rhythm of training relentlessly , and for a while when Trunks was just a small boy, even a little after Buu was defeated, Trunks was with him everyday striving to get stronger and reach new heights in his strength and power level. Vegeta had grown rather proud of his son, though he never expressed it, it always made him happy to see his baby boy growing up to be like his father. But after some time passed, Trunks grew bored with training, and after practically dragging Trunks with him into his training sessions, Vegeta just stopped. He didn't need that ungrateful child to train with him. Trunks had been a disappointment after all. It seemed his whole life had been a big disappointment. Having to be ranked under a low class Saiyajin in strength was almost more than he could bear. Countless times, he was surpassed by Goku, countless times Vegeta had reached a new level, and Goku zipped by as if it were nothing. Countless times, he had failed…why would he expect more from his son? From that point on, Vegeta just kept to himself, ate, drank, slept, and trained. The only reason he seemed more tolerable was because he hardly spoke, well, and maybe his daughter too…

"Well I did shorten the story up a bit," Goku answered. "I was just trying to get the general idea of what our situation was looking like, I'll explain the rest to the others later but I'll tell you now. King Kai has contact with the other Kai's," Goku supplied as he settled himself in the sand near the small tidal waves that were rolling in from the sea. He looked up at Vegeta, who still stood rigid with his arms tightly folded across his chest, expecting him to take a seat too but Vegeta's scowl only grew larger. 

"Look Kakarot," Vegeta declared, "just because I've accepted the fact that you are stronger than me does not mean we are friends, understand? I just came down here to get some information, otherwise I would have nothing to do with you, got it?"

Goku sighed and continued on. "The Kai's don't speak often, yes that is true, but when the quadrants cross like that it's the duty of the Kai's to notify each other of these happenings. Yeah I was wondering the same thing when King Kai was telling me this last night. I mean, how can you just cross over from quadrant to quadrant anyway right?"

Vegeta just nodded his head. "Well that is a good question though Kakarot, how did he do that?"

"Well this Lord Iriyoku is extremely intelligent. He is just unlike anyone we have ever matched up with before. He is actually the leader of the planet Jepido, because he created a vast network of technology that surpasses anything the earth could muster up. He would only offer up this network if the people of the whole planet would agree to succumb to his power. It included advanced modes of transportation, communications, medicine and more, I mean this guy is impressive! And he seems to have done it all himself, gave the people of his world a taste of how much their lives would change and improve, and they took him up on his offer.

"But his lust for power would not stop there, he craved it," Goku continued. "So he began his quest to develop advanced space travel technology, so that he could hop from planet to planet, taking over. First he would present his ideas to them, and promise a renovation of their lives if they would indeed turn over their power to him. Some were so astounded by his genius that they willingly gave it up to him, and he did supply them with what he promised, so those civilizations had no complaints. But, there were some, that of course resisted, saying that they weren't interested, and declined his offer. For those unfortunate souls Iriyoku had on hand an arsenal of the most talented soldiers in their universe to take care of them until they agreed to give up their freedom. They were educated in the most successive battle tactics and skilled in weaponry and the likes, of course courtesy of Iriyoku and his research. This guy is meticulous, he researches everything, gets as much information about what he needs as there is to get, and manipulates it to his liking."

"Hmph," Vegeta mumbled. "Reminds me a bit of Frieza, minus the brains."

"He created training camps that specifically taught his forces all the tactics he wanted them to know, which includes our martial arts."

"Wait a minute," Vegeta interrupted. "This doesn't make sense. This sounds like it has taken place over the course of several years, 10-20 give or take a few. If he taught his soldiers our martial arts, how the hell long has he know about us?"

"A very long time Vegeta, probably more than 20 years. It is unknown to King Kai how long he has known, or how long he has been planning to attack. Lord Iriyoku knows all about us too Vegeta, he knows about Planet Vegeta and how Frieza destroyed it, and how I destroyed Frieza, and all the other battles we have been faced with. He even knows about the dragon balls, but it is unclear whether he is coming for them or not. Since he wants to resurrect Brolli, I'm pretty sure he'll need them unless he has some other way. He wants to take out Earth first thing because we have the strongest defense, but really Vegeta, his army is just about tough enough without Brolli and his children."

"Well if they can take us out as we are, why does he need those kids?" Vegeta inquired.

"He doesn't," Goku stated. "Not to take out Earth anyway. Though I think with enough intense training we could give them a pretty good fight, he just might not want to risk losing. But since he has so much knowledge of the galaxy, there may be stronger planets out there that we are not aware of, or he may just be lusting for the power. Those kids have the potential to surpass even me Vegeta, well at least one does for sure. The others may not be able to ascend past the level of SSJ3, but that doesn't mean that they can't actually achieve that level of a SSJ3. If he weren't coming for them, we would need them to help us fight against Iriyoku anyway. But now it is crucial that we find them immediately, Iriyoku is set on retrieving them and will not stop until we eliminate him. We can't just merely defeat his army. If we do manage to stop him from getting those kids and defeating Earth in the first blow, he will move to another planet and defeat it, then come back to ours and try again, with a new tactic, thus a never ending war with this guy until one of us ultimately wins."

"I still don't understand how he found out about us," Vegeta declared. "Can the quadrants cross over like that, where he can just pick a space in some other quadrant, which has to be millions of light-years apart, and just have a look?"

"I asked the same thing," Goku said. "King Kai says he was told by I believe it was the South Kai that Lord Iriyoku just had the smarts. He studied the depth of the black holes located in his galaxy, and developed space probes that could survive the gravitational pull of the black holes without falling apart, and just studied the information that was sent back. Going through black holes I suppose shortens the distance between quadrants quite a bit, but you can't just jump into one or you'll more than likely be crushed to death or lost if you do survive. Of course Iriyoku knew this. Then he had to time the black holes because they didn't last forever and he needed to know which holes to go in and which to come out. Like I said, he did his homework very well."

"You sound so intelligent repeating this information Kakarot, do you have any idea what you're talking about though?"

"Not a clue, ha," Goku replied, smiling for the first time in weeks it seemed.

_"Idiot,"_ Vegeta thought to himself. "What about if we fuse? Do you still have the earrings?"

"No, I left them with the Supreme Kai. If you really want to fuse I still remember the dance for the

fu-"

"No way Kakarot," Vegeta cut in. "You won't catch me doing that idiotic fusion technique even if it is to save the world. Only if you get the earrings back or something, otherwise forget I even mentioned it." 

Goku sighed again, and looked out over the ocean. It had turned out to be such a nice day, despite all the troubling times they were about to faced with. _"Hope we can salvage this,"_ Goku thought sadly. _"It's getting to that point…"_

"Well," Vegeta said after a pause, "since the guy goes around offering his plan to the planets before he decides to destroy them, how come we get left out? Why is he attacking us straight up?"

"Well he knows all about our history," Goku answered. "He already knows we will resist."

*****

Goten and Trunks had wondered off by an area with a few trees clumped together behind Master Roshi's house to get some fresh air and think about all the information Goku and Piccolo had supplied them. 

"This is just too weird," Trunks exclaimed as he plopped down in a soft patch of grass located in a small clearing. Goten settled himself opposite of Trunks and started pulling at small flowers and blades of grass.

"Yeah, we kicked Brolly's toxic ass not too long ago," Goten replied. "And now we gotta deal with it again times three."

"Well if we find them before that Iriyoku bastard does, at least we'll have a little edge on getting them to side with us," Trunks said. "Your dad actually looked a little worried. This Iriyoku guy must be pretty tough."

"He must be something, 'cause my dad has been actin' so weird lately that it was driving me nuts. Its like his worrying is a contagious disease, 'cause I was worried for along time without actually knowing why."

"Well," Trunks countered, "my dad and I were both on edge for the past week or so. I think we all felt it just didn't know what the hell was goin' on."

The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes, musing to themselves. "Why would Brolli want to ha_ve _kids anyway?" Trunks muttered under his breath. Brolli always seemed too absorbed in his need to pulverize Goku to want to have attachments. 

Goten looked up and a silly grin was plastered on his face. "He didn't want kids dumb ass," Goten told Trunks, "he just wanted to get some, hehehe." Trunks replied with his middle finger, then the two went back to pondering to themselves until Goten broke the silence.

"How do you think we'll find 'em Trunks?" he asked sincerely. "I mean since Piccolo said they may not generate any ki, and we don't know their names or where they live, how are we supposed to be able to sense them? The ki is the only thing we have to work with."

"Yeah I know," Trunks said gravely. "How the hell are we supposed to find them when we don't even know their names? Are they little kids or grown? I mean really. Well, this Iriyoku guy may not know exactly where they are either," Trunks said, thinking aloud. "So really it's a race to see who can detect them first, right?" Goten just shrugged. Trunks thought some more for a while then spoke aloud.

"Ok this just doesn't make any sense. The guy knows all about Brolli's kids, yet doesn't know where they are? I mean if the guy is smart enough to find a way to discover our history, all our battles, even duplicate Babidi's ability to mind control, I'm sure he knows exactly where they are. Hell he probably knows our names too, and where we live, he has to know where Brolli's kids are," Trunks exclaimed. "I don't see how Goku or this King Kai dude haven't seen this, or maybe King Kai didn't tell Goku, but Iriyoku has to know." 

Goten and Trunks sat in silence again for sometime, then got up and started heading back to Master Roshi's house, taking a path near the beach. They stopped when they spotted Goku and Vegeta talking and eavesdropped in on their conversation which included more detailed information about how Iriyoku discovered the earth. Trunks was paying very close attention to what was being said and pondered on it for quite some time, while Goten's expression gathered a more confused look. _"What the hell is my dad talking about?" _he thought to himself. _"I didn't even know he knew those words."_

Trunks expression too, displayed confusion, but for different reasons than Goten's "Somethin' doesn't add up. C'mon Goten, this guy has done a lot of researching us, time for us to dig a little ourselves. If we're gonna do this we might as well start now."

Goten looked at Trunks with his already confused expression. 

"But where?"

*****

Gohan and Videl were seated in some lawn chairs located on the patio of Master Roshi's house. Pan was playing near the area where Goku and Vegeta were having a deep discussion.

"I wanna come with you," Videl said, breaking into Gohan's concentration. Gohan had been listening in on Goku and Vegeta's conversation, of course Videl wouldn't have known, since they were much too far away for her to hear, or fathom that Gohan could hear.

"That's not a good idea Videl," Gohan said. "You haven't fought in a few years, not since Pan was born. I don't want to risk anything with you."

"Well I know that fighting isn't a good idea," Videl agreed, "but I don't want to just sit back during a time like this. I wanna help in at least finding the kids, that's harmless right?"

Gohan thought for a few minutes before he answered. "We might cross paths with these guys in the process of trying to find them," he replied after the wait. "We don't know how close they are or far away. And the way Dad is making it sound, this army won't be a piece of cake. He doesn't use the word 'elite' unless they are truly that powerful."

"Well," Videl said after she spent her moment of silence, "if they do show up in the middle of our search I will head home right away ok?" Gohan thought for a while again, and Videl rested her hand over his. "Please Gohan," she pleaded, "I promise I will leave if it gets dangerous. Pan can stay with Chichi, or even Bulma and play with Bra, she'll be fine if that's what you're worried about."

"Actually that is sorta what I'm worried about," Gohan answered. "It is possible that these characters know who we actually are, since according to Dad they know about all of our battles (and he had overheard Goku tell Vegeta this). Who's to say that they don't know where we live? Who's to say they won't specifically target us, meaning my dad, Vegeta, us Saiyajins. That is all they would have to do Videl. Then the Earth would be defenseless. And if both of us are gone when they do finally make it here, they will more than likely make tracks toward our homes, and destroy everyone in there."

"Well Gohan," Videl said with a sigh, "you think me staying will make a difference on whether everyone gets killed if they attack our homes while you guys are out? I would just die too, I'd die fighting yes, but I wouldn't stand a chance alone. Well your mother might have a little fight left in her but still, we couldn't do much. Lets have them all go to Kami's. They would be safe there eh? And if I am out with you guys and they attack us I can make way for Kami's as well. Ok?" Gohan gave Videl a sideways glance. He really didn't want her to go, but then, he couldn't blame her for wanting to. She had been so active before they had Pan, and now she spent a lot of her time at home, she probably missed being so involved. _"It's not as if she's asking to fight," _he thought to himself, _"she just wants to help search for the kids."_

"Hmm," Gohan murmured out loud. "They all will definitely have to be moved to Kami's while we are away, whether you join us or not on the search. And I know how much you miss the action." Videl smiled brightly at Gohan. _"Wow she's happy," _Gohan thought.

"Great!" Videl exclaimed, jumping about 10 feet out of her lawn chair. "When do we start?"

Gohan paused a moment, and the replied, "When we figure out where to start."

*****

Krillin had left Android 18 and his daughter in the kitchen of Master Roshi's home to find Goku and see what he was up to. Tien and Yamcha decided to do the same. They all met up with Goku and Vegeta located at the beach, still in deep discussion.

"So…" Krillin said as he reached the two during a pause in their dialogue, "have you two figured out how exactly we are going to start looking for these kids yet?"

"Not yet," Goku answered. "Vegeta and I were just discussing some things he didn't understand about where the lord comes from and how he found us. As I told him, Iriyoku knows all about us, the 

Z-fighters that is. He is coming to specifically attack us, since we are the earth's best defense."

"Why is it that this situation seems to get worse and worse as we talk more about it?" Krillin asked impatiently. "He's coming after us! Do you know how long its been since we've fought Goku? That was back with Buu, over eight years ago. I'm rusty as hell. Why can't we just have peace for crying out loud!"

"We need to split up," Goku said. "We need to really comb every corner of this planet, trying to sense abnormal levels of ki and it has to be in two girls and one boy. I do know that they are around Goten's and Trunk's ages. No older than 20, no younger than 12 is what King Kai said. Sorry if I keep bringing this stuff up in pieces, King Kai gave me a lot of information last night, kinda hard to remember all of it at once."

"Well that narrows it down a bit," Yamcha supplied, "but still, this is going to be hard. We need to divide up in our groups and start searching tomorrow. We have no time to waste. This is going to take several days, weeks, maybe even months."

"Not to mention," Tien added, "since these kids don't train, the other humans that do practice martial arts will generate higher ki than they do, and that will only confuse us. We need to find a better way to narrow it down."

"Well," Goku said after a bit, "their auras are gonna resemble Brolli's. If you can remember what Brolli's energy pattern felt like, then you can start searching for patterns that resemble that. You know, like how you always know I'm Goku even if you're not looking at me and I'm approaching you, because you know how I feel."

"Hmm," Tien murmured. "That was a long time ago Goku, though that was a fight to remember. I bet I'd recognize it if I felt it, though I can't exactly remember it right now huh?"

"You should be able to," Goku said. " Hopefully…its just that their patterns will be much weaker than his, so it is going to be difficult to detect, but right now, that's all we have to go with. So today we need to get our plans and groups in order, and get rested up, for we are now on a race against time. King Kai should be able to tell me if this guy starts getting close, I don't think he is very near right now, just on his way."

"Hey Vegeta," Yamcha said, trying to be friendly, "Roshi has that movie on if you want to go check it out….."

"I WAS KIDDING FOOL!" Vegeta retorted, "do you honestly think I would want to fry my brain watching that garbage!" With that Vegeta made an about-face turn and walked off along the beach to be alone.

"I didn't think Vegeta even knew what a joke was," Yamcha finally said after everyone gathered themselves from that abrupt burst of anger from Vegeta. "If I would have know it was a joke I wouldn't have said anything, jeez." Yamcha hung his head and headed back in the direction of Kame's House. Tien put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him for a brief moment.

"Vegeta is just hard to deal with," Tien told Yamcha, trying to cheer him up a bit. "I know you were just trying to be nice. I honestly thought that he liked the flick too, though I haven't seen it yet."

"It's really dumb, but how was I supposed to know," Yamcha said with a shrug, then sighed. "Oh well I tried." Krillin , Yamcha, and Tien all started making their way towards the house, the aroma of dinner in the making began to fill the air.

"Coming Goku?" Krillin asked, somewhat disturbed that the smell hadn't made Goku so much as flinch. He just continued to sit and stare out into the unknown.

"Yeah…yeah," Goku replied absentmindedly. He clearly had other things on his mind.

Later that evening, they all had a nice dinner, but it was mainly spent discussing in detail the information Goku shared with Vegeta earlier, so that everyone else would have a better idea of what was going on. Next Piccolo and Goku began grouping the search parties together. During the dinner though, no one had noticed that Goten and Trunks were missing. Piccolo, Gohan, and Videl were in one group. Goku, Vegeta, and Krillin were placed in another. Tien and Yamcha were paired up together.

"Wait a minute!" Vegeta exclaimed. "I'm not pairing up with anyone, I don't need a partner, especially Kakarot!" Goku just rolled his eyes and shook his head. He had no words for Vegeta. _"I just can't understand why he can't let he past be and move on," _Goku mused. _"this is getting ridiculous."_

"Vegeta would you just cooperate for once?" Piccolo said, the irritation creeping into his facial expression. "We are safer if we are in groups, just in case." He glanced over in Goku's direction and noticed that Goku actually looked hurt. _"What's with him?" _Piccolo thought.

"Well I most certainly do not need Kakarot to hold my hand. If we have to have groups then my partner will be….." Vegeta paused and looked around the living room area that everyone had gathered in.

"Where is Trunks?" Vegeta asked when they noticed they were short handed.

"Yeah, and Goten," Chichi added. "Those boys are always everywhere but where they are needed."

"Well that just pisses me off!" Vegeta barked. "Those two brats are slowing us down!"

"Now calm down Vegeta," Goku said. "We'll just pair those two up when they return, wherever they are." Goku was genuinely upset with the two boys as well for not being there but he knew that they would turn up eventually. "That will make four groups, two groups of three and two groups of two. Do you guys think we need five groups? If so then Piccolo and Krillin can pair up."

"And that leaves me and you Kakarot," Vegeta hissed. "No way, you go with your kid, I'll go with mine."

_"Thank you thank you thank you…."_ Krillin said to himself over and over, grateful that he was not paired up with Vegeta alone.

"Fine then," Goku replied solemnly.

"It might be better that way, we will cover more ground," Piccolo replied to Goku's suggestion of five groups. "The only pitfall is the chance of running into a little trouble. If we are doubled up it might not work in our favor, depending on our opponents."

"That's true," Goku said, rubbing his chin. "I think that is a chance we will have to take," he said after a while. "We have a good chance of finding them quicker if we are more spread out. Like I said earlier, King Kai hasn't told me that any of them are here yet, and I'm sure he will if they start getting close."

"And if he doesn't?" Vegeta asked.

"Then we have to hope we get lucky." Goku said. "There isn't much we can do otherwise."

"Hmph," Vegeta muttered.

"So me and Piccolo are a group now?" Krillin asked.

"Yes," Piccolo answered.

"Well if I talk to 18, she might want to come," Krillin volunteered. "Then we could have three groups of three and a group of two, Vegeta and Trunks. That way our odds against anyone trying to stand in our way go up a little."

"Ask her," Piccolo said. "If she agrees, then we go back to four groups, we'll cover less ground, but then we'll be safer and that is important too."

Krillin found Android 18 in one of Master Roshi's guest rooms taking a nap. "18," he said, gently shaking her awake. "Hey hon, wake up I need to ask you something."

"What," she snapped, still groggy from her interrupted nap. "What is it?" Krillin taken aback from her irritable mood almost forgot what he was asking as it was silent for a brief moment.

"Oh yeah," he finally said, "The gang and I were wondering if you would like to help us try and locate Brolly's kids. We could really use your help."

"What about Marron?" she asked.

"Well," Krillin said. He hadn't really thought of that. "We can't take her with us huh."

"No way," Android 18 replied.

"She can stay with Bulma!" Krillin decided. "They should get along just fine for a while. Plus Vegeta won't be around to get on her nerves." Android 18 chuckled at that remark.

"Well I don't really see why you all need me, I don't think I would be much help. I heard how you guys are trying to detect Brolli's energy patterns, well I don't remember what his vibes feel like, I wasn't paying that much attention when he attacked us."

"Sure you would hon," Krillin said. "We need your strength, in case we run into a little trouble along the way."

"Oh I see," she murmured. "Well in that case I'll take that as a compliment. You sure Bulma wouldn't mind watching over Marron while we are away?"

"I'm positive. She may need the company," Krillin replied. "Well Chichi would be able to visit some too, but then she might get on Marron's nerves, ha ha. Naw they should all be fine, really."

"Ok then," Android 18 said as she yawned. "Go tell them I'm in, but I'm getting back to my nap now." She rested her head back on her pillow and commensed going back to sleep. Krillin left and notified the others of 18's decision, and asked Bulma's permission that their daughter stay with her for the duration of the hunt. Of course Bulma was more than happy to oblige.

"So the groups now are myself, Videl, and Gohan," Piccolo listed off, "Goku, Goten, and Yamcha, then Krillin, 18 and Tien, with Vegeta and Trunks doubled up." Everyone nodded and seemed to agree, except Vegeta, who just stood stiff as a statue, arms crossed, stare cold as ice.

"I think," Gohan stated, as Piccolo finished up, "that we should send our families to stay at Kami's Lookout until we get back. I think that is safe incase those guys show up while we are in the middle of our search. As we discussed during dinner, they are coming for us, and the most likely places they will look first is our homes."

"Gohan is right," Vegeta agreed, for once. "That's a good idea. They won't think to look there, not for a while anyway," he added. "And if they do start heading for you guys, you can hide in the hyperbolic time chamber or something."

"Only for two days though Vegeta," Bulma said. "That may not be long enough." Worry lines began to etch there way along the lines of Bulma's face.

"Let's just hope we find the kids before they even arrive," Goku said. "Let's think positive here guys."

"We have to be realistic Goku," Bulma exclaimed. "It could happen so we have to be prepared. We know virtually nothing about them except the fact that they are heading for us. Since they know about our history, they will know about Kami's place."

"It's not that easy to find though," Goku said. "Plus they won't look there first. Just don't worry, we'll take care of you guys." Bulma gave Goku and unconvincing smile, but let the subject drop. 

"We're gonna have to start gathering dragon balls now," Yamcha said. "We are definitely going to need them."

"Well we can do that during our search," Piccolo answered. "Kill two birds with one stone, 'cause you're right Yamcha, we are going to need them."

"Well what I want to know is, where the hell is my son," Vegeta said after a brief moment of silence. "He and Kakarot Jr. should have been back by now."

"Yes they should have," Chichi agreed, toting a sleepy Pan on her hip. "Where are those two?"


	3. Chapter 3 One the Inside

Chapter 3: One the Inside

Trunks enter the front door of the Capsule Corps with an exasperated expression on his face, as an elated Goten followed.

"You know it wouldn't have taken so long if we didn't stop," Trunks mumbled, plopping his tired body on the blue leather sofa located in the living room.

"Oh come on Trunks," Goten piped up, "that woman needed some help carrying her groceries."

"She only had one bag!" Trunks exclaimed.

"Well the bag was heavy," Goten countered. You didn't expect her to carry it all the way to her house did you. She had to walk pretty far."

"The bag only had a few items," Trunks replied. "and the walk from her car to her house was less than 200 feet."

"Oh c'mon Trunks," Goten chimed, "that woman was kinda cute, besides she made us a good dinner for helping her. If we hadn't stopped we would have had to make dinner for ourselves. Remember what happened last time?"

Trunks didn't want to remember, but Goten had a point. A few months ago Bulma had begged and pleaded with Vegeta to accompany her to a movie. After a few days of non-stop arguing Vegeta finally consented. Though the reasoning behind Vegeta's agreement is more than likely that Bulma would not fix the gravity chamber, that he had managed to break a few days before Bulma was asking to go see a movie, unless he promised to go with her. 

Bulma had asked Trunks to baby-sit his two-year old sister while they were out, so Trunks having really no choice, agreed and invited Goten over to keep him company. The two had gotten a bit bored after Bra fell asleep, so they decide to fix themselves a late dinner. All appeared well, and the food didn't taste funny at all, but for the next few days after, the two boys became very ill. Neither of them could figure out what had gone wrong, but they were positive that the dinner had made them sick and vowed never to cook again. 

"Ha, your right about that," Trunks said, beginning to relax a bit. Goten seated himself in an arm chair as Trunks began to let his body sink into the pillowy cushions of the couch he was resting on. He looked towards the ceiling, then scanned the whole living room: big screen TV, coffee table, arm chair opposite of Goten, beige drapes covering the windows. _"Yep," _Trunks thought to himself. _"Home sweet home. God I hate this place…" _

"Yo Trunks, I'm thirsty, you want anything," Goten said, breaking into Trunk's train of thought as he headed in the direction of the kitchen.

"Um, naw that's ok, I'm fine," Trunks replied. While Goten was rummaging through the kitchen, appearing to be searching for a cup, Trunks allowed his thoughts to drift to the more negative aspects of his life. He tried not to ponder on those kinds of things, most of the time he tried to keep himself busy so that he didn't really have the time to spend a great deal thinking on these adverse manifestations of his life. But there were times when he just couldn't control the contemplations as they piled up, like bricks, each one heavy, waiting for that final thought to bring the whole lot of them crashing down and spilling out, each one begging to be considered, demanding to be given the time and space they deserved. At the moment, the cup was brimming full, thoughts spilling over the side every once in a while, when the cup was tipped a little. Trunks just prayed that the cup didn't spill all the way over, he didn't know what he'd do then.

A particular nagging reflection resurfaced again and again, as Trunks tried in vain several times, to push it down and let some other concept be given a chance to be set free. No matter, it slowly crept into his mind and consumed him… "_I hate my father…NO, no you don't…I hate…..I ….hate him…NO, I don't hate my father, he hates me…"_

In truth, Trunks didn't hate his father. He had more respect for him than anyone else, even Goku. Vegeta was his father, he loved his father. But he couldn't shake the feeling that Vegeta disapproved of him. Every time they passed by in the hallway, Vegeta never so much as nodded at him anymore, just walked on as if Trunks wasn't there. Dinner was eaten in silence, neither of them making eye contact even once, as Bulma tried in vain to make a friendly conversation. Dinnertime was the only time Trunks really saw Vegeta, most of the day Vegeta was training, or locked in the den Bulma had made especially for him. There was so much tension between them, Trunks didn't understand it. _"What did I do wrong Father," _Trunks asked himself repeatedly, failing to come up with an answer, only speculations. _"Is it because I don't train as much anymore……is it because I study more than train…is it because I'm me!! What!!!"_

Trunks specifically remembered the day, the beginning of the end of a budding father/son relationship. The day Vegeta stopped asking him to train with him. Trunks had grown quite bored with training, they did it everyday for hours and hours. In the beginning it didn't seem like such a long time, but over time, training just dragged on. Trunks wanted to go out and play more, watch TV, do kid things, he wanted a break. Everyday he would ask Vegeta if they could take a break from training and spend the whole day at the city park, instead of just a few hours, or go swimming, anything but training. When Vegeta refused, Trunks just began dragging his body during training, not putting a lot of effort into it. Trunks knew better than to whine, but he just didn't have his heart into training anymore. He was burnt out, and Vegeta noticed. 

There was nothing that bothered Vegeta more than watching someone just go through the motions. It infuriated him to watch his son lacking in effort while he himself was pushing himself harder and harder. Plus, this training was more so for Trunks benefit than for his, he had the gravity turned down to a tolerable degree for Trunks sake, and only increased when Trunks was ready. So when Trunks started acting lax during training, Vegeta decided to just train on his own, that way, no one could hold him back, especially if no one wanted to train with him anyway…

So one day, Vegeta entered the gravity chamber alone, and locked the door behind him. Trunks had waited around for Vegeta to ask him to train, so when he didn't, Trunks just decided to go to the gravity chamber and wait for him. _"Maybe he just went to run an errand for Mom," _the little boy of 10 years said to himself, _"or maybe he's taking a nap."_ It had been routine for Vegeta to tell Trunks it was time to train, so when he never asked, Trunks began to worry a little. Trunks made way for the gravity chamber, and as the now older Trunks began to reflect, everything seemed to go in slow motion, and his stomach began to clinch at the thought of the pain that day had caused. 

__

As he neared the chamber, all sound ceased. Even the clock on the wall seemed to all of a sudden stop ticking. His throat tightened, deep down, he knew something was wrong with this scenario. He then started to hear something coming from behind the closed door of the chamber. Someone was in there, someone was already training! "Dad," he called out, as he ran to the chamber door and tried to open it. But the door wouldn't budge. He tried it again, nothing. "That's strange," Trunks thought. "Dad never locked the door when we trained together, why would he lock it now?" Trunks sat and mused to himself for a bit, then got up and knocked on the door. "Dad," he called out again, "Dad open up, let me so I can train with you." No reply. Trunks stuck his ear up to the door to make sure that he wasn't hearing things, but sure enough, Vegeta was in there. "Dad!!" Trunks yelled, now banging on the door. "You forgot to let me in Dad, stop playin around." Though Trunks had actually been dreading training that morning, he wanted inside that room now more than anything. Something wasn't right and he realized it as his stomach started to get sick.

"I didn't forget to let you in Boy." Trunks was dumbfounded. Boy? Since when did his father refer to him as Boy? 

"Dad, open up, so I can train too, remember, we train everyday…together.." Silence. Vegeta had stopped moving around. Trunks again pressed the side of his head against the door, trying hear what was taking place. He couldn't even hear Vegeta breathing. Trunks sat in silence by the door for several minutes, waiting. Soon he heard Vegeta go back to making his ki blasts and heavy grunting from kicking his imaginary opponent to the ground. Trunks again, was surprised. "Why won't he answer me," he thought sadly to himself, trying to figure out what he had done wrong. His father never got angry with him, this was the first time. Trunks racked his brain, trying to come up with something, anything, but couldn't. "Dad let me…."

"You will address me as Father, Boy," Vegeta said, the sheer irritation showing in the gruffness of his voice. "As you are nothing but a mere boy. Now go away, go to the park or swimming or whatever it is you like to do. I have no use for you here."

"I have no use for you here….." echoed in Trunks mind like an annoying broken record, just wouldn't go away.

"TRUNKS BRIEF!" Goten exclaimed, his turn to look exasperated. "What the hell is wrong with you man?" It appeared that Goten had been calling out to Trunks for a while.

"Oh hey, sorry man," Trunks exclaimed, running his fingers though his lavender hair and trying to regain his composure. He couldn't let Goten find out about what was going on in his family. That was private. But Trunks feared that if Goten ever noticed, and asked about it, he might actually tell him everything. Trunks couldn't let that happen. He would look weak and bitchy. _"No way,"_ Trunks thought to himself. _"I will not look weak in front of him."_

"So what's up?" Trunks asked, trying to look casual.

"We came here for a reason, remember?" Goten answered. "We're supposed to be looking for something, you haven't told me yet but my mom's gonna kick my ass if we just took like that for nothing."

"Oh yeah oh yeah," Trunks said after a brief second. "Come with me to my mom's lab, that's where we'll start." Trunks led the way up the stairs and down the long corridor that led to the majestic lab Dr. Brief had left to Bulma.

"Yo Trunks, you ok man?" Goten asked on the trip down the long hall. "You didn't look so good back there, everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Trunks snapped inadvertently. That was almost a dead give-away that something was wrong. "Don't worry, nothing's wrong ok?"

"Sure man," Goten answered, knowing better than to press the matter any further. Trunks got lost within himself a lot, he just never noticed. _"Maybe one day he'll tell me about it," _Goten thought to himself as the two neared the laboratory. _"After all, I am his best friend, what are best friends for right?"_

Before the two entered the laboratory, they passed by two gravity chambers, one for Trunks and one Vegeta. About a year after the incident with Vegeta locking Trunks out of the gravity chamber, Trunks mustered up enough courage to ask Vegeta again if he could train with him. Trunks didn't realize how much he missed training and spending that precious time with his father. At the time, he saw very little of Vegeta and missed him very much. He assumed that repeatedly asking to go to the park was wrong, so he never asked again for the whole duration of the year. Yet Vegeta did not let up on his apparent grudge against his only son. Trunks tried to break the ice himself by asking Vegeta again if he could train, but of course Vegeta's answer was no, and he requested that he not be asked again as he closed the door in to the gravity chamber in Trunks face for the last time.

Trunks was heart-broken. He didn't think there was anything worse than to be shut out completely by his own father, the man he looked up to for so long, the man he believed in with all of his heart. His hero, his mentor, his everything…slamming the door to his heart, right in the young boys face. That finalized the ordeal, Vegeta hated him, so Trunks thought anyway.

Bulma tried many times to talk Vegeta into letting Trunks train with him as well, but to no avail. Vegeta wouldn't hear any of it. She finally gave up on Vegeta and built Trunks his very own gravity chamber, in hopes to cheer him up. Trunks trained for hours on end in that thing, trying to impress his father with his diligence and endurance, and the amount of strength he gained, hoping to win his respect. Vegeta was not so easily impressed, so Trunks himself gave up. With that, Trunks decided to just concentrate on other things, like studying and spending more time with his mother, especially when she worked in the lab. He learned his away around the lab quickly and became of great assistance to his mother. Those this time spent with his mother was special, nothing could fill the void Vegeta left in his heart.

Trunks' gravity machine had been left unused for a little over a year -to-date.

Goten and Trunks finally entered the enormous laboratory. Trunks led the way to a humongous computer screen as Goten looked on in wonder. Goten had never been in the lab before, so he was awe-struck by the many gadgets and vast machinery located within. _"No wonder Bulma makes all that cool stuff,"_ Goten thought to himself, _"she has all this stuff to work with. Hell she probably even built the machines that help her make that stuff, WOW."_

"Your mom's lab is awesome Trunks," Goten exclaimed as Trunks positioned himself in front of the big screen monitor.

"Thanks," Trunks mumbled, now lost in his own thought as he began to key away at the keyboard located in front of the monitor. Goten hopped up on a table and watched as the huge screen took on multiple tasks, relaying back and forth between command information that made absolutely no sense to him. For the next several minutes, the only sound that could be heard was the clicking away of the keys on the keyboard as Trunks was engaged in his endeavor to seek out any information that would aid their efforts in finding the lost young ones. 

"What exactly are you doing Trunks?" Goten finally asked. Trunks sighed and took a pause in his work to briefly explain to Goten what was going on.

"You remember how your da-father mentioned that Iriyoku sent out space probes and stuff to study us?" Trunks asked.

"Sure," Goten replied hesitantly, not quite sure what Trunks was getting at.

"Well about six months ago my mother finished building her own miniature satellite to send out into orbit so she could intercept the signals sent out over TV waves and we could have satellite TV for free.

The satellite was initially built to intercept many types of signals. So I'm trying to tap into the program she has constructed for it and send out a command to find other signals. If Iriyoku just happens to have a probe in the vicinity of the interception, this baby should be able to pick it up, then we will see what he sees, it should help. I'm not quite sure what the radius on this thing is though, if the probe is too far out might have to move the satellite around a bit…" After the brief introduction to Trunks' Techno World, he commenced his search and Goten stared at him, bug-eyed, dazed and confused.

"Wow Trunks, that's brilliant!" Goten finally said after remembering that he needed to breathe. "I would have never thought of that." Trunks faintly nodded but continued.

__

*****

Yamcha had stepped outside and was walking along the beach lost in thought. He had to get out of that house, it was too stuffy. Everyone decided to wait around for a little for Goten and Trunks to show up. If the two didn't come soon, then the rest of the warriors would have to go looking for them, just to make sure nothing was wrong. Yamcha could deal with looking for Goten, but Trunks……

And Bulma. Made his chest burn just thinking of her name. Bulma…so many years ago. Yamcha had had many girlfriends since then, but just couldn't seem to settle down with any, especially if the one he really wanted was already spoken for. But that was so long ago, almost 17 years since she broke up with him, broke up with him because she was pregnant with Vegeta's child. She had cheated on him! _"How could she?"_ his heart bellowed out. No reply though. With Vegeta? The man that cared for no one but himself, even to this day? No matter, Yamcha couldn't bring himself to blame Vegeta. Bulma is the one that stayed with him, Vegeta could have really cared less about her, and the baby, Trunks. If she had walked out on him back then, Vegeta wouldn't have had anything to say but good-bye and would have gone on about his life without a second thought. But now it was too late, he was attached to Bulma, and had another baby, sealing the deal.

_"If she hadn't gotten pregnant, she probably would have seen he didn't give a fuck about her, then maybe she would have come back to me," _Yamcha thought to himself glumly. He hadn't really given this much thought to the matter for several years. He was supposed to be over Bulma, he hadn't really seen her since the Buu times, giving him plenty of times to heal the wounds that opened up when he saw her back then, for the first time in 7 years. He just couldn't get over his bad luck, or her stupidity for falling for Vegeta. Seeing her again now was almost too much, not only that, she seemed so happy. Her smile wasn't as bright, but it could have been because she was aging the same as he was. This infuriated Yamcha, how could she possibly be happy with Vegeta, he gives her nothing….

The only reason Yamcha had tried to be friendly with Vegeta is because he thought that maybe allying with him whole-heartedly would help ease the pain. Maybe seeing what Bulma sees in Vegeta would help him understand why they could never be. But that was not an option after all. And Trunks….had grown up to look just like Vegeta. He had the character all about him too, an arrogant stature, though he didn't say much so he couldn't tell if his attitude reflected Vegeta's or not. Even though he had purple hair like his grandfather, this kid was a spitting image of Vegeta, well…except his eyes. He had Bulma's eyes there was no mistaking that. It almost sickened Yamcha, to see a mixture of Bulma and Vegeta…something that should never have happened. Yamcha could hardly stand Trunks, he knew it wasn't Trunks fault he was here, but seeing Trunks only reminded Yamcha of why he and Bulma broke up so long ago. That was so long ago and he still wasn't over it. _"Dunno how long I can keep this false face up," _Yamcha thought to himself, _"but I don't think I can hold in much longer. Might have to quit this shit, as much as I love it, I'm older now and not much help. Plus fighting along side Trunks wouldn't work out at all, I might lash out at him or something, then all hell would break loose. Guess I really did love Bulma, and still do…"_

It had been well over an hour since the groups had been decided and everyone discovered that Trunks and Goten weren't there. Nightfall was beginning to creep up around the edges and chilly breezes raced across the waves. The sunset was enough to warm even the coldest of hearts, but not the most hurt, like Yamcha. Sunset meant nothing more than that the day was over, and he had survived it. But the cool breezes were coaxing Yamcha to go back inside the house, and after stubbornly withstanding the chilliness, Yamcha made a slow trek back to Kame's House.

Inside, anxiety had taken over Chichi and Bulma. They were getting a bit worried about where their sons could have run off to. "It's starting to get dark now Goku," Chichi said. "Maybe you guys should go looking for them now."

"Don't worry so Chichi, they'll be here soon, if not then we will definitely go looking for them," Goku replied.

"But its been hours already," Bulma exclaimed. "They weren't here for dinner so no telling how long they really have been gone, something seriously might have happened to them, and you guys stop waiting around you might be able to save them if they are in trouble!"

"I would have sensed if something was wrong," Piccolo said quietly. "The rest of us would have too I'm sure, so stop worrying, we'll take care of this."

"Well do you know where they are?" Bulma asked evenly, insulted by Piccolo's bluntness and nonchalant attitude. This was her son they were talking about.

"No," Piccolo answered calmly, arms folded. "But they are in no danger at this time." Bulma just sighed and took a seat beside Chichi who had settle her restless body at the table, trying not to get too worried.

"I say we just go home Bulma," Vegeta said roughly. "Trunks is a big boy, he can find his way home, and I need rest since we are going hunting tomorrow." Bulma just rolled her eyes and sighed again. She really wished he wouldn't act like this in front of everyone, they would start to figure it out soon…she didn't want them to know. Maybe she could fix it before anyone found out…Bra was in her lap, nodding off to sleep.

"Where are they going to stay?" Krillin asked out of the blue. Everyone else looked up at him in confusion. "I mean, we go and find them, and bring them back, but where are they supposed to stay? To sleep?" No one had thought of that.

"As much as I hate to say this," Piccolo finally answered, "I think they would best fair at Bulma and Vegeta's home."

"WHAT!" Vegeta exclaimed. "And why is that Namek?"

"Because you have a gravity chamber, that would be the best training to start them out with." Piccolo stated. "They need to increase their strength quickly, and what better way than to train them in a gravity chamber. Plus," Piccolo added, "you guys have plenty of space."

"My chamber is off limits to everyone but me," Vegeta answered quietly. He didn't really mind if even Kakarot moved in, that place was so big that it wouldn't be hard to go through the day and not see them. He would be training all day anyway, he had his own den when he wanted quiet time to himself. Plus having the children of the Legendary Super Saiyajin stay in his home might prove to be quite interesting. But no one was going to use his chamber. No one.

"But Trunks has a chamber of his own," Bulma provided, not quite sure if saying that would make Vegeta more upset. She paused and waited to see if Vegeta would object, but he said nothing. "He never uses it, so they could train in there, I don't mind at all," she finished. _"They may spring some life into my deadened home,"_ Bulma thought miserably to herself, but no matter, there might some hope. _"But then they might see through us and see that our family is shattered, and I don't know if I want anyone to see that."_ Everything had been going so well…

"So long as they use his chamber then I guess its fine with me too," Vegeta said.

"If things don't work out," Videl added, "we have room for them." After Gohan and Videl had married, Mr. Satan offered to build them a nice luxurious home. But Good Buu stepped in and constructed a huge house for the two without even being asked. A very nice house indeed. Videl was so touched she cried, and the two newly weds happily accepted the gift. They had more than enough room for guests.

"Ha," Krillin said with a laugh, "well that's settled." At that moment, Yamcha entered the scene, looking a bit down. Everyone, even Vegeta, noticed his dismal mood and Yamcha attempted to play it off by suddenly perking up.

"What I miss!" he exclaimed, realizing he looked like a total fool, and also realizing that this acting gig he had taken on was going to be tougher than he thought. Before anyone could answer, Master Roshi's telephone rang. Chichi was the closest to it so she answered.

"Hello," she answered, hoping that it would be Goten. Not Goten, but close, Trunks.

"Hey Chichi," Trunks said, "is my mom around, I need to talk to her."

"Is Goten with you?" Chichi asked, "if so then put him on the phone because he needs to know how much trouble he's going to be in for running off like that without telling anyone!" Before Chichi could go off the deep end, Bulma whisked the receiver from her. Goku appeared behind his wife and rubbed her shoulders, trying to ease her tension. He seemed to tense up when she did and they were near each other, he didn't know why but he did.

"Hey honey," Bulma said, relief literally written on her forehead. "Where have you been son?"

"Son," Vegeta said. _"Yeah where have you been Son, worthless Son, my son nonetheless."_ Vegeta was secretly relieved, and succeeded in not showing it.

"Well I took Goten with me to your lab and we looked up some stuff that might help us out," Trunks said, sounding quite proud of himself. "I actually did find some stuff."

"That's great son!" Bulma exclaimed. Meanwhile everyone else was crowding around her trying to get a glimpse of the conversation.

"What's so great Bulma," Krillin said, as he was being edged out of the way by Roshi.

"Well I have good news and bad news Mom," Trunks said. "Good news is, I think I know where all three of the kids are located."

"Mm hmm," Bulma replied, hoping the bad news wasn't too bad. There was a pause, so she coaxed him. "And the bad news…?"

"The bad news is that some of these creatures may already be here."


	4. Chapter 4 Scratching the Surface

Chapter 4: Scratching the Surface

Trunks spent over two hours pecking away meticulously at the tiny keyboard linked to the gigantic screen before he made his discovery. Goten sat back and watched, getting bored at times, drifting off to the monotonic clicking of the keys as Trunks fiercely tried to come up with something useful. After about 30 minutes, the screen suddenly turned dark in contrast to the brightness of the previous background. This automatically awoke Goten and he realized once his eyes were focused, that he was gazing into deep space.

"Wow Trunks what did you do?" Goten asked as he gawked at the awesome site.

"The satellite has a camera on it," Trunks answered. "It took me a while but I just now figured out how to turn it on." Trunks gave Goten a sheepish smile then went back to work.

"So what are you doin now," Goten asked.

"Gonna see if we can possibly get a glimpse of anything that might resemble a probe and see if it emits a signal. If so then I'll try to tap into it."

"Cool."

Trunks entered a command for the camera to begin searching a wide radius of space . As the screen changed pictures, Trunks and Goten studied it intently to see if they could catch something, anything, that looked out of place. Once the camera appeared to have scanned the entire region, Trunks sent the satellite into orbit to see if they could catch anything from further off. Twenty minutes had elapsed before Goten detected a probe that was definitely not anything the Earth had sent out.

"There, you see it," Goten exclaimed, as he jumped off the table and pointed radically to the upper left hand corner of the screen. 

"Where," Trunks said, squinting to see what had appeared to Goten.

"Does your camera have a zoom, up there, zoom in up there," Goten said in a rush. 

Trunks keyed in the command for the camera to zoom in on the strange probe floating amongst machinery much unlike its own. It was made of an orange metallic material, and in the shape of a water molecule, one big sphere in the middle and two smaller spheres off to the side connected to the larger by some cables. "Oh my god," Trunks exclaimed once he brought the camera in focus, "what the hell was this guy thinking!" The probe looked plain ridiculous.

"Ha ha ha," Goten laughed, falling into the floor, overtaken with snorts and giggles.

"Well that is definitely what we were looking for," Trunks said. "No way in hell anyone from Earth made that." Trunks guided the small satellite closer towards the alien probe until it started detecting a signal being relayed. Trunks positioned Bulma's satellite to intercept the information, but for about five minutes, nothing happened. Goten looked up in confusion, knowing that something was supposed to take place, and Trunks just looked on in disbelief. _I've done everything I know to do, _he thought to himself. _Is this thing malfunctioning?_

Then, all of a sudden, the screen was bombarded with foreign characters and several photos, one right after the other. The screen was filling up so fast Trunks thought the computer might explode! "Oh shit!" he yelled, not sure if he should run for cover or not.

"Make it stop Trunks!" Goten yelled back. He too was wondering if the computer could handle the over load.

"I don't know HOW!" Trunks exclaimed. He wanted to go over to the keyboard and play around with it to see if he could miraculously come up with something to stop the machine from frying, but he was frozen in fear and apprehensive about the thing blowing up in his face. As Trunks was getting ready to hide under the table and wish for death since his mother would murder him for breaking her computer and possibly her satellite, the massive load of characters on the screen began to slow down. "It's slowing down," Trunks said with a sigh of relief. Goten was already under the table, and hesitantly poked his head out to have a peek.

"What is that stuff Trunks?" Goten asked as he noticed that the only thing he recognized on the screen were the few pictures. Everything else looked like a foreign script.

"Well shit," Trunks said when he realized that the characters were indeed letters from some sort of alien alphabet. "Its their language Goten, I hadn't counted on the information coming back in their language." Trunks sighed and leaned against the table. This was no good, he couldn't read what appeared on the screen so it was totally useless.

"What are those pictures of Trunks?" Goten asked, finally easing himself from up under the table and studying the photos that appeared on the screen. "Scroll down, there were some before those too, what are they?" 

"I don't know, lets see," Trunks replied. There were indeed several photographs of several different places around the world. They were of large spaces too, not just a house or a neighborhood, whole towns and cities. It didn't really make much sense. Each picture also had small writing in the bottom right-hand corner, but of course it was foreign to them so not much help. "Just looks like random cities to me Goten, maybe they were planning on attacking them?"

"Too bad we can't really tell where they are huh," Goten replied glumly. "And it really sucks that we can't read that stuff the satellite sent back to us…"

"Maybe…we can," Trunks slowly said, appearing to have an idea brewing in his head. Goten just stared at Trunks, wondering what he could possibly do to make those characters legible. "I can position my mom's satellite in front of this orange piece of junk, and change the direction of the initial signal, reverse it I mean. If I do that, then that means that I will be in control of the issuing signal, then I can change the language to ours and receive their signal in our language!"

"What in the hell!" Goten exclaimed. "You sure it will work?"

"Its worth a shot, because if it doesn't then this whole thing was worthless." Trunks followed through on his plan, and in about 45 minutes, it appeared to be working. Soon they were receiving words they could comprehend, but hardly any of it was good news.

"Oh my God," Goten gasped as he absorbed the dismal info. "This is bad Trunks…"

*****

"They are shape-shifters Mom," Trunks said, relaying his story to Bulma. "We tapped into their database and it pretty much gave us the sequence of their mission. These Jepidians have the ability to assume the shape of any living thing, and generate the same level of ki as whatever they turn into so that they can't be sniffed out. According to the information we got, there is a ship with about 1500 of those creatures headed our way, with orders to just assume a human shape and make homes here. So the ship we got our information from is not the mother ship after all, its one of the smaller ships. The space probe we found also relays messages back and forth from the Jepidians already stationed here to that ship and the mother ship which still seems to be years away."

"Wow," Bulma gasped, not really knowing what to make of the whole situation. "Hold on Trunks," she said as she switched the phone over to speaker phone so that everyone that had crowded around her desperately wanting to know what was being said could hear. "Ok now continue on honey."

"As I was saying," Trunks began, "the mother ship isn't anywhere close, but according to their records, they sent out a fleet that supposedly arrived here about 18 months ago. The photographs that we have here are of the places that these beings scattered and settled to, the dates on the photos are how we know how long ago it was. They seem to only have photo's of their fleet from 18 months ago, but there is information here on ships that landed here about a year ago and six months ago. I think this probe specifically monitors the Jepidians from the fleet that landed 18 months ago. There are probably other probes around the Earth's orbit that relay information between the other groups. No info on where the latter groups are located though. This new ship is due to arrive anytime now, they seem to be making six month intervals.

"This is Iriyoku's army stationing themselves here, they were all looking for the kids of course, and they have finally located all of them. A special ship is due to arrive right after the new flood of immigrant, that is lightning fast and has a special army that will capture the kids and take them back to the mother ship for their two year training and whatever other experimentation Iriyoku had in mind for them. Once the kids were taken back though, Iriyoku would keep sending waves of his army here to disguise themselves until he arrives and come straight for us. But he was gonna sneak up on us, seeing as he can shape shift too and we wouldn't have suspected a thing until they struck. He actually wants to force us to become part of his army and help him gain control over other planets, and of course if we refused we would be destroyed."

"Why would Iriyoku want his troops landing here and not really doing anything?" Bulma inquired.

"I think," Trunks answered, "its because once Iriyoku had gotten us to side with him, or defeated us, he was going to carry out his plan to try and take over the Earth. He would already have his armies strategically placed in various areas to control rebellions and other acts against him. In the end he always gains control, but sometimes it costs lives for those who are unwilling to succumb to his power."

"Good grief…" Krillin whispered.

"You say you know where the kids are?" Piccolo asked, frightening Trunks for a brief moment since he wasn't aware that he was on speaker phone.

"Uh-um-yeah," Trunks stuttered. "Yeah we have some photos here with different labels, they say Child one, Child two, and Child three, and where they were located six months ago. They are the only half way recent photos we have here. They could have moved since then, just no photos of where they might have re-located, and I haven't come across any data that contradicts what I already have."

"Well that's good news, at least we know where to look," Goku said. "That cuts down a lot of time."

"Do you have any information on whether this special ship that is supposed to take the kids away has arrived yet Boy?" Vegeta huffed.

Trunks winced and quickly brushed it off, but not before Goten noticed. "No, I don't."

"Well that isn't helping us much, they could already be here, and gone before we even get a chance," Vegeta replied coldly. 

Bulma sighed loudly, and gave Vegeta cold gaze in return. _Why can't you just give him a chance Vegeta, _Bulma thought to herself. _He is really trying to help and all you can do is complain. Jerk…_

"Well Vegeta does have a point," Piccolo replied. "All we know is that they are due to arrive anytime. Anytime could have been yesterday, or could be next week, though I think we would have sensed the activity if it had already occurred. I don't think they would have just walked off the planet with those kids, not without a struggle or fight, which would raise ki that we would have noticed."

"Well how come Dende hasn't said shit about any of this!" Vegeta barked. "I mean, don't you think its strange that these creatures have been landing on this planet for over a year and Dende hasn't even peeped a word about it to us?"

"Since when does Dende willingly just tell us things?" Piccolo asked calmly, though slightly agitated at the little respect Vegeta showed for the guardian of the Earth. "When we get information from Dende, it's usually us that go to his lookout to seek it. Since we haven't noticed anything strange lately, we wouldn't have a reason to go there."

"But their ki output would have been weak since the kids don't train," Gohan protested. "We could have still missed it."

"I don't know Gohan," Krillin supplied. "When you were just a wee kid you were pretty weak to begin with, but when you got scared or upset your ki soared. If some stranger just shows up and tries to kidnap one of them, I'm pretty sure it would bring out a surge of hidden energy, and we would feel it."

"Good point Krillin," Piccolo said. Gohan nodded in agreement. 

"So are we agreeing that they are still here?" Tien asked.

"Yes, unless of course these guys are tactful and drugged 'em before they dragged 'em off," Yamcha said. He got an audience of blank stares. "Hey it could happen," he said uneasily.

"Well he has a point," Tien replied. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Though it's possible, its highly unlikely," Piccolo answered. "I'm sure King Kai would have notified Goku if anything like that had happened."

"We can still wait until tomorrow to go after them then," Goku concluded. "Piccolo is right, I'm sure King Kai would have told me if they were already gone. But now it won't take nearly as much time to find them."

"So should we stay in our groups?" Krillin questioned. "We don't really need four groups anymore…"

"Hmm, hadn't thought about that," Goku answered, scratching his head.

"You wouldn't," Vegeta replied with a sneer. Goku was taken aback by Vegeta's rude comment. Chichi looked and matched Bulma's glare at Vegeta. No matter what, Vegeta was not going to make this easy for anyone, not even his own son.

"Well whatever we decide," Gohan piped up, "we need to figure out what we are actually going to say to these guys. I mean, what, we're gonna just fly up to one of them and say 'hey kid, Lord Iriyoku from Planet Jepido found out that your father was the Legendary Super Saiyajin and that you are extremely strong. He wants to take over the whole galaxy and is coming to kidnap you and force you to fight for him. If you come with us you can help us save the world.' It's too far-fetched, I don't think they are gonna buy it."

"Well," Goku sighed, "well if we mention the Majin that Iriyoku is going to use on them, then that might convince them. They remember Buu…oh wait, they don't remember…"

"These kids are kinda young too," Tien added. "Its not them we have to convince, its their parents." Silence. No one had thought of that either.

"Well all we can do is tell them the truth," Piccolo finally said. "They are coming with us regardless, and that's that. It's us or Iriyoku, and I'll be damned if we just walk away from them and let Iriyoku whisk them away because their parents said no." Everyone seemed to agree with Piccolo. "But since we know their exact locations, it would probably be best if we all traveled together instead. If all of us show up with this story it might make it more believable. We do need to be as peaceful as possible about this. I'd rather use force as a last resort, but hopefully it won't be needed."

"Sounds like a plan," Goku agreed.

Before each member retired for the evening, it was decided that everyone would meet back at Master Roshi's the following morning before taking flight on their mission to save Planet Earth yet again. Everyone left, forgetting that Trunks and Goten were still on the phone. They eventually hung up.

*****

_She was in a void. Total darkness, she couldn't see, nor hear, or feel anything. It was the kind of stillness that was so frightening, it was sickening. She concentrated hard, trying to sense any sort of movement, or adjust her eyes to the darkness. Nothing, nothing was happening. She just, was. This wasn't right. She tried to move, but her feet did not appear to be touching the ground, and she couldn't feel her body. 'What the fuck!' she thought to herself, panicking. 'Am I dead?' Tears began to well up in her eyes and brim over the tiny lashes decorating her fearful eyes. A tingling sensation, fear, began to creep up her spine. It was cold. She could see her breath in front of her. 'I can see,' she thought to herself. 'Maybe I'm not dead.' Up ahead of her was a spark of dim light. Instinct told her to go to it so she began to run towards it, her escape from this abyss of nothingness, what was this? She couldn't shake the feeling that something eerie was lurking in the unknown dark, pursuing her, chasing her, waiting to pounce on her. No matter how fast she ran, the dim light did not seem to be getting any closer, but "it" seemed to be very near. She did not tire from running either, but it seemed she had been running for quite awhile before she realized she wasn't making any progress._

'What…' she thought to herself. 'What am I supposed to do?' She stopped running. As soon as she stopped the vague patch of light ahead of her suddenly zoomed closer at lightning speed. Before she knew it, she was back home, in her tiny living room, laying on the couch. 'Ah it was just a dream,' she thought to herself. 'What kind of fucked up dream is that though?' She sat up on the sadly disfigured couch her mother got on sale at a flea market. She casually grabbed the remote control that was always on the arm rest of the dismal piece of furniture and pressed the power button. Nothing, just blackness. 'What in the world,' she pondered, agitated that things just didn't seem to be working around here. She got up and circled around the television set, looking for signs as to why this piece of shit wasn't obeying her command to come on. Everything seemed to be in order, and it was plugged in. She re-inserted the plug into a different socket incase the prior one had blown a fuse. Still no juice. "Hmph," she grunted, angrily yanking the plug from the outlet. That's when the TV decided to come on. 'Great,' she thought to herself as she slowly made her way to the abnormal device. 'I just had to fall into the Twilight Zone.'

She positioned herself in front of the television screen and was greeted by the agonizing face of her mother. "Mom!" she screamed wildly, grasping the TV. "Mom what's wrong?" No reply, only shrieks of terror and screams of pain. Suddenly, she was there, with her mother, within arm's length. Everything was red, the floor, the sky, if it was a sky. It was hazy, blurry, but she could see her mother clearly in front of her. 'Mom,' she cried out, 'what's wrong?' Then she saw them, large cuts and tears in her mother's beautiful skin. They kept appearing as if some invisible force was slashing away at her mother with a butcher's knife. "STOP IT!!!!" she screamed, reaching out for her mother, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain. But as she reached out, her mother was pulled away from her, out of reach. She then saw them, the monsters that were brutally torturing her mother for some nameless crime. She couldn't see their faces, but they were leading her away, taking jabs at her body with their cruel instruments whenever they could. They were disappearing in the scarlet haze, when she noticed that her efforts to run to her mother and save her were again hindered by some unknown force. She put all of her strength and will into trying to run, but to no avail. The screams of her mother were still loud, but fading and she just remained in her position, trying to run like a fool but getting no where. "Mommy!!" she cried out in pain, in fear, in angst. "Mommy!!"

She then noticed hands on her arms, holding her. So that was it, these things were invisible, holding her down. "Let go of me!!" she roared, trying with all her might to break free of the death grip they had on her. She just remained, listening to the dreadful and heart-wrenching screams her mother was creating. Her mother was everything to her, they only had each other. There was no one else after her mother. She could do nothing, nothing to save her mother from this cruel punishment. Death seemed to be the only thing on the menu. Death was so unfair, her mother did not deserve this. She could no longer hear her mother. Was she dead, or just out of range? No matter, she going to die anyway. She felt empty inside, then she noticed that she was blacking out. No, they were shoving her into a hole, a black hole. She tried to struggle, but yet again, they held her down easily, how could she be so weak! She watched helplessly as they pushed her inside of yet another abyss, or maybe it was the same one. She had watched helplessly as they murdered her mother. What was it like to have your life taken away? What was her mother thinking of before she drew her last breath? What's it like…she could never imagine. Death was so unfair…she looked up to see the same dim light that she had seen earlier. She was back where she started, it was cold, but the light was fading away into nothingness. Back in darkness, not feeling, not hearing, not seeing. She screamed, for herself, for her mother, she screamed. She had numerous emotions running through her mind, she couldn't grasp any of them, they just kept jutting back and forth, pain, anger, sorrow, grief… She couldn't even hear her screaming, she wasn't totally sure if she was screaming but it felt like it. She then wasn't even sure she felt it, she was so alone…..screaming in the dark…where no one could hear…

She awoke with a start. She had gone off the side of her bed and bumped her head on the corner of the nightstand located right next it. She already had a headache from earlier, but it appeared to be dissipating, despite bumping her head. She still couldn't see straight and her stomach was queasy. _Great, _she thought to herself. _Dunno if I'll make it to the bathroom this time…_

Her vision being unclear, she felt her way around the rather small room, in the direction of the door leading to the narrow hallway. She couldn't quite remember the dream she had just had, but she was sweating profusely and breathing heavily, her stomach was slowly recovering from the butterflies that had gathered in the middle, yet it was also growing sicker. Whatever happened, it had scared the shit out of her. Clumsily, she felt the door in front of her and reached up to the knob. Using the knob she slowly dragged her body into a sloppy upright position, the door groaning at the excessive force being applied to it, already weak from previous fits of sleep. Once she was up, she hesitantly took a step forward, as if she were an infant uncertainly taking its first steps. She still couldn't see good, her headache was going away, but it was still throbbing as if there was nothing else in the world but headaches.

_Mom,_ she thought, hazily remembering the horrifying nightmare she had just awakened from. _I have to make sure she's alright._ She had falsely thought she was out of the dream before, it would only make sense if she was still in it, awaiting more torture. But her mother's room was further away than the bathroom, she may not have the time to take a peek then go to the bathroom. She really had to throw up. As her focus began to clear, she made out that her mother's door was slightly cracked. _Just a peek,_ she thought to herself. _Just to make sure she's…_her stomach heaved. It would have to wait. 

She had finally made it to the bathroom. The door was closed so she leaned on it rest a bit, it had seemed to take a lot of energy just to make a 30ft trek from her room to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the door was not fully closed so when she placed all of her weight on the door it gave way. She already didn't have proper balance so she gave way with it, landing with a sickening thud on her back, knocking the wind out of her and starting yet another headache in the back of her head to accompany the one raging in her temples.

She lay on her back for about five minutes, dazed and unable to move a muscle. She wasn't quite sure where she was. She just stared at the light fixture on the ceiling, slowly re-gathering her senses. Everything was so white…her stomach heaved again. _Oh yeah, I'm sick,_ she thought as she rolled over onto her belly. She looked up and saw the bathroom sink just above her head, realizing that she had narrowly missed it when she fell. The toilet was only inches away so she crawled towards it like a helpless baby, her throat tightening as it prepared. She almost didn't make it on time as the vomit refused to stay down any longer. _Well there goes dinner, and probably lunch too,_ she thought to herself. _Just means I'll be extra hungry in the morning. Mom hates that._

Her body was trembling when she finished. She was freezing, and the cold sweat that was clinging her nightgown to her body wasn't helping. She felt a lot better after she puked though, so she slowly brought her body to its upright position. She walked feebly over to the sink, and without so much as a glance in the mirror, turned on the hot water. Once the water heated up she began splashing it on her face in an attempt to warm up. It wasn't working though, she was shivering uncontrollably now and on the verge of getting sick again, with a flaming headache to top it off. She made way for the shower and turned it on, waiting for the water to warm up before she hopped in. Once the water reached a suitable temperature, she hauled herself into the tub and sank in the bottom, letting the hot water run over her body, nightgown and all. Once the shivering stopped, she curled herself into a small ball and cried. Memories of the horrific nightmare were swimming in her mind. What irked her the most was her inability to save her mother, or herself. She seemed to have no power whatsoever, it was devastating. She dreaded the day when this dream would turn into reality and someone would come and strip her mother out of her life. She knew it was coming, she didn't know why or how, but she knew. She kept having varied versions of this nightmare, though the latest one was on the top of her worst nightmare list. 

Something bad was bound to happen since she kept having this nightmare right? Maybe not, she hoped not, but deep down she knew something was amiss. This was the third time in two years that she had had a dream this scary. She had nightmares continuously, but every once in a while it seemed that they flared up into dreams of this measure. She uncurled her body and reached for the handle to turn the water off. She had stopped trembling but now she was soak and wet. She hadn't actually realized she had climbed into the shower with her clothes on. Plus her hair was extremely long and thick, it wouldn't be dry by the morning and it would take over an hour to blow dry right this minute so she would more than likely have the sniffles when she woke up the next morning. _Stupid, _she chastised herself. She had most of her strength back now so she easily climbed out of the tub and made her way to her room to change. 

Once she had replaced her sleeping clothes, she made way for her mother's room. There was no way she was sleeping alone tonight after that. She knew she was too old for this, but she couldn't help it. She was quite relieved when she saw her mother sleeping peacefully as she was supposed to be when she entered her room. She crawled under the covers on the empty side of the bed and was fast asleep in a matter of minutes. No matter what happened, she always felt safe in the presence of her mother, even after that awful dream, even when she knew that she and her mother were powerless to stop anything that might endanger them.

****

Author's note: I have virtually no knowledge about how satellite's operate, but seeing as the DBZ world is far more technologically advanced than the real world, it could happen that way ;)


	5. Chapter 5 Onward

Chapter 5: Onward

Goku awakened to the sound of pots and pans gently rattling. As much as Chichi tried to disguise the noise, Goku's sensitive hearing picked up on it instantly. No it wasn't food, but it meant that food would follow shortly, thus triggering Goku's keen senses. 

Goku groaned, rolling over in the direction of the window and noticed that the sun was barely up, providing a few golden rays as a gift for the darkened bedroom. _What,_ he thought to himself, _Chichi never gets up this early to cook breakfast._ Goku switched positions to gaze at the small clocked located on his nightstand to be sure he was seeing correctly. _Wow, 6:12, why is she up this early?_ Besides that day he had awakened to the sunrise a few mornings prior, the Sons never woke up to get started on the day before 7:30 am (7 for Goten and Chichi on school days, Goku continued to sleep in regularly). Now fully awake, Goku got up and followed his ears and nose to the sounds and smells of the bacon Chichi had just put into the skillet.

"Hey hon," Chichi said when see saw Goku arrive. "Don't you think you need to get dressed first?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why?" Goku asked, confused.

"Because I will not have you eating breakfast in your underwear at my table. It's inappropriate and teaches Goten bad table manners, you know that Goku." She kissed him on the cheek then shoed him off to change.

"Well ok, but why are you up so early?" Goku asked on his way out. "We never eat this early, or get up this early for that matter."

"Goku don't be silly," Chichi replied, an edge of intolerance lingering in her statement. It was too early in the morning for her to put up with Goku's childish games.

"I'm not."

Chichi looked up suddenly, she herself detecting the seriousness of his voice. The look on Goku's face was of sheer questioning. He honestly did not know. "Goku…"she whispered, gazing at him for a few seconds, not know what to make of the situation. "I'm up early because you said last night that you guys were leaving at about 7 to meet at Master Roshi's to start searching for Brolli's children. Remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Goku mumbled. He then turned and continued back to his bedroom to change and freshen up for their meal.

_Goku what is wrong with you,_ Chichi thought to herself as she placed two dozen breakfast rolls in the oven (Goku and Goten could eat!). She too, had noticed the sobering of his generally pleasant, carefree aura. He was often caught lost in thought, and staring off into space instead of his routine training in the backyard, fishing, and waiting for Goten to return from school so he could spar for fun. He usually scheduled Saturday training with Gohan to keep him from getting lax like he had in the 7 years of peace prior to the arrival of Babidi. But the last Saturday, Goku had forgotten all about it, after they had been doing this training since Pan was born.

_What is wrong with me,_ Goku silently screamed. _How could I possibly forget something so important, _he thought as he slipped into his bedroom and threw on his characteristic gi outfit. He silently scolded himself while he brushed his teeth. _Shape up Goku,_ he repeatedly told himself, _the Earth needs you right now, come to your senses already._ As he splashed his face with the warm water running from the tap, he took a long, hard stare into his image. He looked ok, didn't seem to show any signs of the stress he had been through the past few weeks, but he didn't feel ok. _This battle is gonna be tough, but am I ready?_

*****

"Here you go Trunks," Bulma said as she handed her son a 6-pack of copter capsules. The two were leaving her laboratory and heading for the entrance to Capsule Corps. The two-year old Bra was tagging along, struggling to keep with Bulma and Trunks' speed. The lengthy corridor was brightly lit, with white walls decorating the sides along with a white ceiling, white floor, and even white doors. Walking through this hallway everyday was like walking down a hospital aisle. "You guys might get tired of flying, since you have quite a distance in between the places you need to get." Bulma had reviewed over the locations Trunks showed her when she returned home the previous night. She had taken the liberty of mapping out the quickest routes they could take to reach each destination, but these kids weren't anywhere close to each other. "Besides, it might be best to use those once you find them, since I'm sure none of them know how to fly, and it would look silly if you guys carried them around."

"Thanks Mom," Trunks replied, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek as they had reached the door that lead to the living quarters of the house.

"Me too," Bra piped, unwilling to be left out of anything at her young age.

"Hah ok you little rascal," Trunks said, bending down to give his baby sister a peck on her nose.

"Where's Father?" Trunks asked as he was preparing to leave. He packed away the photos, mapped route, and other information he thought might be useful in their quest.

"You know you don't have to call him that if you don't want to," Bulma replied to her demi-saiyajin offspring.

"Why wouldn't I want to?" Trunks asked, looking confused.

"Because you look uncomfortable when you say it," Bulma answered, "and it sounds so unnatural, as if you're forcing yourself t say it, even after all these years."

"But Father wants me to call him that Mother," Trunks replied in a low voice, looking at his shoes.

"Don't call me Mother, I am your Mom, got that," Bulma exclaimed. It unnerved her to see her once so confident son reduced to an uncertain young man. Just as she was about to suggest that Trunks go look for his father, Vegeta emerged from the gravity chamber located near the door that separated the building into to two places.

"Da-Father…" Trunks said, bewildered.

"Vegeta," Bulma yelled. "Why aren't you dressed, you guys are going to be late."

"Well since big shot here already found the brats, kinda took out the fun of searching for them. Since they are already pin-pointed I'm not needed." With that Vegeta continued down the hall towards the bathroom to take a shower, though it seemed futile since he would obviously be back in the chamber later to work up another sweat. If Goten and Trunks hadn't discovered where the kids were, Vegeta would have gone off on the hunt by himself anyway, either way leaving Trunks by himself. He didn't need help from anyone.

"You've got to be kidding," Bulma said quietly, stunned that Vegeta would just throw the mission over something so trivial.

"You wish," he answered as he slammed the bathroom door behind him. Trunks and Bulma were at a loss for words. They stood for several minutes staring at the door Vegeta was behind. Bra was quiet as well, though she had no clue what was going on.

"That's ok I can go alone," Trunks spat out angrily as he stormed down the remainder of the hall, passing the now yellow walls with family pictures decorating either side. _What a joke,_ he thought as he passed the still frames, random captures of when he was younger and everything was ok back then. He took a small mental note that those pictures hadn't been updated since his ordeal with his father began. No surprise to him though. 

"Trunks wait," Bulma cried out, running after her irritated child, with Bra futilely trying to keep up. "Trunks!" she gasped, clasping on his arm while she caught her breath after feverishly trying to catch up to him. When he was angry, he walked extremely fast. "Listen, I can go and try to talk to him, maybe he'll--"

"He already said he didn't want to go Mom," Trunks replied, the muscles in his arms tightening under Bulma's grip. "As a matter of fact, he never wants to go anywhere with me. Why should I have expected different." With that he yanked his arm from his mother, maybe a little too hard because she fell. He heard her fall as he headed out the door, but figured if he turned around to help her up he might start to cry and he wasn't about to do that. But this was beginning to be a bit much on him. His hopes that things would take a turn for the better were fading as the day grew more mature, even though it was still very early in the morning. Giving up was not an easy thing to do, but it seemed like the only alternative he could take that might ease his mind, or perhaps, fully break him down.

*****

Vegeta had just finished taking a shower when his thoughts over-powered him and bombarded his mind at full speed. _Why don't you just bulk up and talk to your son. Are you too proud to apologize? Is it too hard to tell him that you are proud of him? You can't keep doing him like this, he's your son!_

"Bah," he muttered allowed. Yes, it was hard to apologize. He would look weak in front of his son for apologizing for all the stress and pain he had put him through over the past several years. Poor kid, he was really trying too. But Vegeta had never apologized to anyone, about anything. To apologize would be to admit that he had been wrong, somewhere he had been wrong. Vegeta was never wrong, or was he? No, never. He was the Prince of the Saiyajins, princes always knew best, right? Besides, Trunks was his son, the boy could tough it out, as Vegeta had during his youth.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to even travel alone with his son, for then he might break down his guard, and tell him how he really feels. He knew he had Trunks' respect, that was evident, but Vegeta feared that if he did make up with Trunks, his son would know that his father could be wrong, and had admitted to it, and Vegeta might lose some of his respect in that sense. It was too risky, he dominated this household, and it was going to stay that way. There could never be any doubt from any of them about him. If only there was a way to make up with him without looking wrong…

_Well, maybe there's a chance that Trunks will gain more respect for you if you admitted that you hadn't been fair to him over the years…_ "Bulma," he mumble as he brushed his teeth. She was creeping into his mind and influencing his thought. She would say something like that. But could she be right…what if she wasn't…nope couldn't risk it.

All of this pondering on his current family state had left Vegeta no room to spend a lot of time musing on how much he despised Goku and was going to defeat him someday, if it was the last thing he did. He too would be a Super Saiyajin 3, he was already training in 600 times Earth's gravity. It was tough too, but Vegeta could stand up straight now, and walk around a bit. He could only do 20 push-ups though, but he was working his way up the ladder. Nonetheless, he would pass Goku, since Goku didn't train in any type of gravity at all. He should be getting weaker where Vegeta was getting stronger.

There was something nagging in the back of Vegeta's mind about Goku though. He seemed different nowadays, like something was bothering him, something was wrong with him. Sure the news of Brolli coming back with Majin and his children being almost as strong as Goku with the possibility of going Majin, would be enough to unnerve him a bit. But Goku was never really seriously worried about any of the enemies they had faced before, even when the odds were heavily against them. Something was wrong with him, and Vegeta noticed. Any other time, Vegeta would have been thrilled to see Goku at a point of weakness, just the perfect time to stomp him into the ground for good. But now was not the time for that, they had a planet to protect. No, fighting along side Goku was never fun, but they seemed to triumph with him on their side every time. Vegeta couldn't shake the feeling that Goku might not be able to provide much help in the end, something was definitely bothering him. This in itself, unnerved Vegeta, fighting without Goku put a major dent in their overall strength. But then, with all the training that Vegeta had been through over the years, they might not need Goku after all. _We will see won't we…_

*****

"You will be going to school today young man!" Chichi bellowed to her youngest son as he begged to be allowed to accompany Goku and Gohan on the mission. "You and Trunks did a good job finding out that information, but now they really don't need you to go with them. So you can still go to school today."

"But Mom…" Goten whined. "Its just a few days. We might even find all of them today Mom. Pleeaaasseee!"

"C'mon Chichi," Goku pleaded. "I really want him to come. I promise we won't be out long. Give him a break he's been going to school everyday since he started. This is important."

"I don't want him slacking off," Chichi said stubbornly, crossing her arms firmly. "First its one day, then he'll want to miss more and he'll fall behind and--" There was a knock on the door. Chichi paused her lecturing and crossed the room angrily to answer the untimely visitors.

"Hey Mom," Gohan said, as he bent to kiss his mother on the cheek and entered the room cheerfully. Videl followed with Pan asleep on her shoulder. "Aw looks like you guys just finished breakfast. I'm still a little hungry." Videl rolled her eyes. It was quite difficult to keep Gohan's appetite satisfied.

"Yeah we just finished," Goku replied, mischievously rubbing his tummy.

"Well anyway we just came to drop off Pan and head out. I couldn't convince Videl to stay home even though we know exactly where we are going now. She still wanted to come," Gohan explained, winking at his wife.

"See Mom," Goten exclaimed. "Even Videl wants to go and she's not really needed."

"Videl is grown and she doesn't have school," Chichi replied firmly. Goten scratched his head, like his father does, desperately trying to think of something that would help his case.Defeat was written all over his face after a bit, but then they all detected a power level approaching.

"It's Trunks," Goten exclaimed, rushing out the front door as Trunks landed himself delicately on the plush, dew-sprinkled grass of the early morning. Goten stopped short of reaching his friend when he noticed the dismal look on his face. He looked as if he had been crying the whole way here, his eyes were puffy, but they weren't red so maybe he had been holding back the whole time, or maybe because the air was chilly this morning and he had flown quite a ways from his home. Whatever the case, Trunks looked miserable. Goten had noticed when Trunks wasn't feeling well or thinking about something he wouldn't understand, but he had never seen him like this. As many times that Trunks had flown by in the birth of the morning to go hiking or fishing before the sun was up, the cold air in the higher atmosphere did not do that to him. So something was wrong with his best friend.

"Hey, you wanna come inside?" Goten asked hesitantly, putting a friendly hand on Trunks' shoulder.

"Sure," he replied, with a crooked smile. Even though he'd been thinking the worst thoughts on his way, he automatically felt better being around Goten and his seemingly perfect family atmosphere. When Trunks entered the house he was surprised to see Videl and Gohan already there, and everyone in the living room was surprised to see him in such a state. He looked a bit better than he did when he first arrived, but everyone could sense that Trunks was going through some sort of struggle.

"Hey Trunks," Gohan said playfully, gently punching him in the arm, "you ready?"

"Where's Vegeta?" Goku asked, as everyone else noticed his absence.

"He's not coming," Trunks replied quietly, his eyes downcast.

"Why?" Goku continued.

"I don't really know, he changed his mind I guess. He says its because we don't have to hunt for the kids anymore since we know where they are, and that takes the fun out of it. But I find that hard to believe," Trunks replied with a bit of disgust oozing from his voice. This clearly upset him. He knew his tone of voice and what he was saying would start to give away the current state of the relationship between he and his father, but at this point Trunks didn't really care.

Everyone was quiet, the tension building up and the mood growing uneasy. "Um," Chichi finally said, "have you had breakfast yet? Goku and Goten ate all of it but I can make you something in a few minutes if your hungry." Gohan looked up with a smile, since he was still a bit hungry, more food was good.

"No I'm fine Chichi, thanks though," Trunks replied like a gentlemen. His tension was beginning to wear off, so everyone else began to relax a little.

"I think it would be a good idea if you went after all Goten," Chichi said as everyone got up to leave. Goten beamed at her, as well as Goku. Pan was left sleeping like an angel on the couch in the living room as everyone else exited the house. Once everyone was outside, Goku and Goten both gave Chichi a kiss on either side of her cheeks, and then along with everyone else took flight. "Bye everyone!" Chichi yelled, waving at the quickly disappearing forms. "Be safe!"

*****

Krillin and 18 arrived in one of Bulma's capsule planes at Capsule Corp. with Marron shortly after Trunks' departure. They had been hoping to catch Trunks and Vegeta before they left. What the found when the door was finally answered after several knocks instead was a distraught Bulma and a sad-eyed Bra beside her, clinging to her mother's leg.

"What happened Bulma?" Krillin asked as he set his soon to be 12 year-old daughter down from the short piggy-back ride he gave her from the plane to the front door and entered the house for a few minutes with 18 following.

"Well Vegeta decided that he wasn't going to go on the trip after all, since you guys know where you're going now and I think he blamed it on Trunks and Trunks got upset and…." She didn't want to cry, but it was too late.

"Hey its ok Bulma," Krillin said, giving her a hug to calm her down. "It'll blow over. Vegeta is just, well being Vegeta, hah. But seriously, don't let it get to you, I'm sure everything will be fine, this is probably the first disagreement they have ever had eh?" Bulma nodded, knowing she was lying but it was the only thing she could do to keep from breaking down into tears again.

"So did Trunks go ahead and leave, or is he still here as well?" Krillin asked once Bulma calmed down.

"He is already on his way, and you guys might be late if you don't scoot," Bulma replied, smiling through a fresh batch of tears, that refused to fall this time. Krillin was right, it would blow over, hopefully.

Realizing that Bulma was right, Krillin and 18 reluctantly left. "I hope everything is alright over there," Krillin said as he buckled himself in beside his wife. She just nodded, not wanting to really get into the emotional and personal business of others, but she knew Krillin couldn't help it. He and Bulma had practically grown up together.

*****

Everyone, except Vegeta, had finally gathered on Master Roshi's small island to begin the search. Everyone, except Yamcha, gathered around Trunks as he showed them the maps his mother had made, the photos he had printed off of the cities the kids were located in, and the copter capsules she had given him to travel in. Yamcha stood instead, on the outskirts of the group, just listening.

"Mom stayed up a while last night, tracing the addresses that were located on the photos labeled kid 1, 2 ect. They were the only pics in the group with addresses. She got some names though, which is good, now we know who we are looking for. And she also mapped out the quickest way to each one of them. The closest one located to us right now is the boy. His name is Zeusu Grishinwa and he lives in Myth City, which is located about 1600 miles from here."

"Sixteen hundred miles!" Krillin gushed. "That's a lot of flying don't you think?"

"Well yeah, but," Trunks replied, "the others are over 2000 miles from here. They are pretty spread out. And if we get tired we have six copters so we will be ok. We can be there in a few hours, we fly pretty fast."

"Sounds ok," Piccolo said. "Will just be a lot of traveling, but we can handle it."

"Goten flies 500 miles to school everyday, another thousand won't hurt him," Gohan said, ruffling his younger brother's hair. He too used to fly 500 miles to school everyday. It took about an hour to fly that far, so it would be a few hours before they reached Myth City.

"Onward to Zeusu then," Goku said playfully, almost passing for his old self. He lifted off to take flight, with the others close behind.

****

Author's note: Krillin and Android 18 do not live with Master Roshi anymore, since the World Tournament where Mr. Satan promised to pay 18 20 million zeni. She bought a house with that money and saved up the rest incase there was any question as to why Krillin and 18 would fly from Roshi's and back just to drop Marron off when she could have just stayed with Roshi.


	6. Chapter 6 Living a Lie

Chapter 6: Living a Lie

The legendary Z-fighters flew for 3 and a half hours before they reached the outskirts of Myth City. None of them had really traveled to this part of the Earth, so the scenery along the way kept them entertained on their elongated journey. It was a tad chillier in this area, due to the high altitude in which it was located. The surrounding mountains were beautifully capped with snow, yet lush greens surrounded the immediate area, making for a breath-taking scene.

"Wow," Krillin whispered as the group landed softly in a small clearing about a mile outside the city to take a brief rest before they entered. A large waterfall could be seen and heard from far off in the majestic mountains, and the air smelled as fresh as if today was the first day the Earth lived. A gentle breeze whispered by, carrying with it the faint aroma of fresh flowers, spring water, and dewy grass meshed together in a tingling perfume, and the tint of chilliness that accompanied the high altitude.

"I've never seen a place like this…" Gohan said, with Videl nodding in agreement by his side.

"It is truly one of the more beautiful places on Earth," Piccolo stated. "But now is not the time for site-seeing. We have more important things to attend to. What is Zeusu's address again Trunks?"

"One zero five Ocean Drive. According to this map," Trunks continued, awkwardly shifting the crinkled map as he feverishly unfolded it to keep the information flowing, "it's located south-east of here. So we should just head in that direction." Everyone else nodded and took to the air, but Goku stopped them all quickly.

"I think we should stick to the ground from here," Goku explained, halting everyone in their positions. "Remember what Trunks said last night, there are a lot of those shape-shifters already here. He only had the locations of some of the earlier fleets that arrived. We don't know where the others landed, some are probably here since they have already found the children. Lets not draw attention to ourselves by flying around, this may alert them in some way. I'd rather them not know that we were ever here."

"Good point," Krillin said.

"We should mask our ki then too," Tien added. "Since they have been trained to sense Brolli's energy pattern, they can probably sniff out high levels of ki as well."

"Yes, you are right Tien," Piccolo agreed. "Now would also probably be the time to split up in groups as well. Just everyone make a beeline towards the south-east part of the city and we'll meet up there. Traveling through the city as a pack of strangers will look weird and might trigger alarm as well." The pairing was quick, married couples stuck together, Goten and Trunks teamed up, with Yamcha and Tien going off in one direction, and Goku with Piccolo leading off in another.

"Isn't this great Trunks," Goten said excitedly as he and Trunks made tracks towards their destination.

"What?" Trunks inquired. Yeah this whole mission thing was cool, but he wasn't nearly as excited about it as his elated friend.

"Well being on a mission with you know, the group," Goten exclaimed excitedly. "I mean yeah they always told us the stories of when they traveled together and fought the bad guys, but now we get to be with them. I just think its awesome." Trunks nodded, understanding what Goten was talking about. It was a bit weird now getting the honor of being labeled a Z-fighter now, though they hadn't exactly fought anything with them yet. Back during the battle with Buu, it had really just been Piccolo with them, and he didn't really fight. Yamcha and Krillin didn't fight either, Vegeta and Goku were dead, and Gohan didn't show up until the end. After that, their memories were erased. Something about being inside of Buu…whatever happened after that was hazy.

Myth City seemed to be rather strange. As much as the Z-fighters had hoped they wouldn't be noticed, they stood out terribly amongst the surroundings of this metropolis. It seemed they were among the few that used the sidewalks to get around. Unlike Satan City or West City, these people used their air cars and ground cars to get to every place, even if it was only a short distance away. Speaking of their transportation, it seemed that all the vehicles located in this city were luxury vehicles, top of the line extremely expensive cars. Rarely did public transportation zoom by, it seemed shameful to ride a bus. The people of this city were also very classy dressers. Decked out in the latest expensive fashions, even the waiters and waitresses at the sidewalk cafés were suited up in name brand attire. The Z-fighters were either dressed in gi or their everyday clothes, which made them stand out even more. They looked…poor! Even though Videl came from a family full of money, and Trunks had more dough stacked away in the bank than he could count, they too, looked shabby, even though it seemed normal at home. Money seemed to be the main theme of Myth City.

After two hours, the Z-fighters finally gathered together again outside a large archway that read "Welcome to Cannon Park." Located on the other side of the archway, was a whole new world. Perfectly shaped hedges surrounded hilly acres of freshly mowed lush green grass, decorated with sprigs of multicolored flowers perfectly distanced from each other, along with tall, old but handsome looking oak and weeping willow trees. Beyond the park, were the homes. More like the mansions, castles even. Here, the creativity and diversity took flight. It almost looked out of place compared to the rest of the city.

Abstract housing designs jutted forth, but in all reality, the whole scene looked swell. Diversity yes, tacky-ness, none. Perfection seemed to be the theme for this neighborhood, the whole city in fact. Yet, this neighborhood seemed to be the only thing in the city that separated the wealthy from the wealthier. The Z-fighters had passed by many neighborhoods, with nice homes and properties worth several million zeni, but here is where the line was drawn.

"Does Zeusu…live…in there?" Goten gasped, wide-eyed. The only house he'd been in that remotely looked familiar to these homes was Mr. Satan's home. His home would fit it quite nicely with this neighborhood.

"Well," Trunks answered, pulling out the map to survey the directions again. "Here is Cannon on the map, Ocean Drive is a few blocks up from here, so yeah, he does live in there."

"Hmm," Yamcha murmured. "Well seeing as our goal is to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, just parading around it the richest part of this luxury town is going to attract a few stares."

"Just a chance we will have to take," Goku answered, followed by Piccolo's nod. Trunks handed Piccolo the map and the group followed suit behind Piccolo and Goku for the short walk to the Grishinwa residence. The closer they got, the more the group realized how difficult it would be to actually convince Zeusu's mother that he needed to go with them.

When the Z-fighters finally reached 105 Ocean Drive, it was nothing short of majestic. A circle drive located in the front of the house, laced in cement and stones, with a large water fountain spouting forth white water. The house, mansion even, was totally white. Four stories high and edged in perfectly trimmed hedges and rose bushes. Two giant weeping willow trees lined either side of the house, towering over the mansion as if it were guarding it.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Piccolo asked angrily. "We've got a job to do." Everyone else snapped out of their trance and marched cautiously onto the Grishinwa property. They climbed the short flight of stairs up to the front door and Goku grabbed the brass knocker in the shape of a dragon, and gave three firm knocks on the huge white wooden door.

"Always wanted to knock with one of those things," Goku said with a sheepish smile. A minute passed before a tall butler dressed in black attire finally answered the door. 

"Hello," he said in a rather bored tone, his pointy nose rather high in the air, showing his regard towards the new visitors. "What business do you have here, may I ask?"

"We are here to see Miss Grishinwa and Zeusu Grishinwa," Piccolo said from behind Goku, with slight conviction in his voice, aiming to intimidate the snooty butler a bit. "We have important matters to discuss with them." 

The butler cleared his throat, but kept his head high as he quickly surveyed the group of people. _My what a poverty stricken lot we have here,_ he thought to himself, disgusted. _They don't look like they are even from this city, I've never seen any people dressed down so, with their hair every which way. They probably want money though, figures. _"Well the young Grishinwa is due to arrive from school in an hour, I will see if I can find fetch Mrs. Grishinwa or her husband." With that the butler slammed the door in Goku's face.

"Husband…" Piccolo murmured. "Hmm this could pose to be a bit of a problem."

"Why," Goku asked. "he is just Zeusu's step-father."

"But what if he doesn't know that?" Piccolo inquired.

"Oh I see," Krillin said gravely.

"What?" Goku, Gohan, and Goten said in unison, confused.

"Well…" Krillin answered, "what if she told her husband that Zeusu was his son, like, um maybe she cheated…"

"Oh c'mon you guys," Tien said. "That probably didn't happen."

"It sure could have though," Yamcha said dryly, glancing in Trunks direction. Trunks noticed, and blinked innocently, not knowing what Yamcha was getting at. Yamcha just snorted.

"Well this would be a hell of a way for him to find out if in fact she did tell him that," Gohan said. "We had just been expecting to talk to mothers, not mothers and fathers."

"Geez," Goku sighed. "Guess we weren't expecting this."

*****

"Madame," the butler said, bowing as he entered the large entertainment area where Afurodite Grishinwa and her husband Marusu were watching television. "There are a group of visitors outside that would like to see you. A rude looking bunch I might add, should I just tell them to leave? They look a little low on cash, maybe they will be asking for money?"

"Probably not though," Afurodite said dryly, giving her husband a "he really gets on my nerves sometimes" look. She got up and trekked across the large room to the hallway the butler was standing in. She walked past him and headed down the long corridor, decorated in burgundy carpeting and dim lighting, to the foyer were the front door was located. The butler hurried behind her, trying to keep in step.

"They specifically asked to speak with you and Zeusu, which is strange," he said as he walked behind Mrs. Grishinwa. She suddenly stopped, and the butler almost ran into her. Her heart skipped a beat, then started pounding wildly in her chest.

_Oh Kami,_ she thought fearfully, _a whole group of people, looking for me and my son, what if they have found out?_ Afurodite walked slowly to the door, afraid of what would show if she opened the door._ What if they have come to take my son from me?_ She cautiously opened the door, and then put on a fake bright smile. "Hello," she said happily. "What can I do for you all today?" She took a few seconds to review over her visitors, and decided that it was strange that these people were all together. Adults, young boys, and a green guy, hmm what were they up to?

"Well since we've been informed that Zeusu isn't here," Piccolo answered, "we would like to talk with you about your son."

"What about him, is he in trouble?" Afurodite asked worriedly. They almost seemed like the police or FBI undercover, except for the young ones. _What the hell is going on,_ Afurodite asked herself.

"Yes, he is," Piccolo answered. Afurodite gasped. 

_Zeusu in trouble, good grief,_ Afurodite thought to herself. "What did he do?" she asked Piccolo, since he seemed to be the one in charge. She then stared at Piccolo for a brief second. He looked vaguely familiar, then she surveyed the lot again, the purple-haired boy looked familiar as well, along with the short man, the man with three eyes, and the man with the scar on his face. Even the man with the spiky black hair looked a little familiar, but different somehow. _What in the world is going on here…_

"He didn't do anything wrong," Goku said, giving Piccolo a rest. "But he is being followed and might be kidnapped soon if we don't help him."

"Oh my," Afurodite gasped. "Come in and have a seat, tell us all about it." Afurodite led her guests back into the entertainment room where her husband was still watching the television. Along the way the Z-fighters ooed and awed at the interior. The ceiling was at least one hundred feet high in the foyer, dome shaped, white walls and black marble floor. Once they exited the foyer though, they were led down a dark hallway, the dark carpeting in contrast to the light walls, and dim lighting, seemed almost out of place with the rest of the house. Why all the darkness?

"Honey," Afurodite called out to her husband, "we have some visitors that have some things to discuss with us about um…our son." Marusu quirked a graying eyebrow and tore his attention from the movie he was watching to get a glimpse of the guests his wife had invited into their home. He, along with his wife, were actually a little older than most parents who had children at Zeusu's age. The sudden feeling of deja vu washed over him when they each entered the room. Some faces he could not recognize, but some…yes he knew those faces, well. What were they doing here? What did they have to do with Zeusu?

"Those fighters," Marusu softly said. "Those fighters from long ago, in the Cell games, I know its been ages but I will never forget that, especially you," he said, pointing to Piccolo. "And you," he said, nodding towards Trunks. "Where are the blonde fellows?" Goku, and Gohan raised their hands. Goten almost did, but then realized he was referring to a time before he was born. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"What?" Goku asked.

"You, who saved us from Cell, not Mr. Satan. Yet he won the Martial Arts tournament, but you guys left, for…something," Marusu racked his brain trying to remember, but to no avail. Truth is, he and his wife took Zeusu to the tournament as a gift for his eighth birthday. They were among the unfortunate souls that lost their lives in Vegeta's blast, so his memory was messy at that point. None of the Grishinwa's even knew they died. "Something must be terribly wrong if you are here."

"Yes, something is," Piccolo said. The others took seats in the comfortable furniture located in the entertainment room except Piccolo. He preferred to stand. "I'm not exactly sure how to tell you both this, so I will just tell you. Zeusu is being hunted by a power hungry lord from the depths of the galaxy, hunted for the power he possesses within himself. We have come to take him back with us, and train him to protect himself, and help us fight this tyrant off. This lord wants to take your son and possess him, then use him to help take over the Earth, and other worlds when he is finished here. I know that may sound like bullshit to you, but hear us out. The truth is, Zeusu is the son of Brolli, the legendary Super Saiyajin from Planet Vegeta. This lord, Iriyoku is his name, also plans to bring back Brolli, and two other children that he spawned, to aid him in his quest for power." Piccolo took this moment to pause, trying to read the reaction of Zeusu's parents. They both looked fairly surprised, but not in the way he thought they would. _Strange_, Piccolo thought.

"A…what, a super what?" Afurodite stammered.

"A saiyajin, like my sons and I," Goku answered. "Trunks too, as well as his father, who is not with us right now. A Super Saiyajin is what makes our hair turn gold."

"You say Zeusu can make his hair change colors?" Marusu asked hesitantly.

"Well it wouldn't make too much difference," Afurodite said with a small laugh, "his hair is already blonde."

"So let me get this straight," Marusu said, gathering himself. "Zeusu has those special powers that I saw you guys have at the Cell games, and he can be strong like you guys, but someone is coming to try and take him away from us? Well as much as I would love to believe all this, well it would be honored to have a son that would be of such caliber, and it is an honor that you guys think that its our son, but I think you've got the wrong kid. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do believe you, that you're searchin' for some kid that has this power to protect him, but our Zeusu is well, he's just a kid. He doesn't have power like that, at least I haven't seen it."

"Well he wouldn't have a reason to have that kind of power right now," Krillin said, surprising the Grishinwa's with his sudden participation in the conversation. "He has never really been attacked or threatened in a way that would bring it out of him. But believe us, its there, inside your son, and no other."

There was silence for several minutes, Afurodite and Marusu nervously glancing back and forth between their guests and each other. The Z-fighters on the other hand, were quite confused by their reactions and behavior. Why were they acting nervous? It seemed that Marusu was aware that Zeusu was not his son before hand, which was a good thing, but still, both parents' behavior was unexpected. They seemed to buy everything they were told, but were still apprehensive about turning their son over to the Z-fighters. Why?

"I don't think we can let Zeusu go with you," Afurodite finally said.

"Why?" Yamcha asked, again startling the Grishinwa's.

"Well you don't have much choice," Piccolo said in a low voice, trying to discourage any resistance. "He has two choices, us or them. They will take him away no matter how many times you tell them no, they might even kill you in the process, and he wont be able to defend himself because he hasn't trained. Iriyoku will train him once he has him, and make him a formidable fighter, but for the wrong side."

"But…" Afurodite stammered, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes. Her husband rubbed her arm as she tightly clenched the corners of her shirt, stretching it out of shape. "But he'll find out…if he goes with you." She then turned to her husband. "He'll find out Marusu, he can't." Her voice broke, but she quickly tried to gain her composure. "I'll admit," she said, once she calmed down a bit, "that when the butler said you all had come looking for me and Zeusu, I thought you were a band of social workers that had found out our little secret."

"Social workers?" Goten asked. The rest of the Z-fighters looked at each other in confusion. What the hell was this woman talking about?

"Yes, social workers. But I see that you're not. The thing is, Zeusu is not really my son." Small gasps could be heard. Marusu looked down at the floor. Sure, they knew that Marusu wasn't Zeusu's father, but if Afurodite wasn't his mother…

"What are you talking about?" Piccolo asked, deciding to take a seat after all.

"Well it was going to come about sooner or later," Marusu said, holding his wife's hand, "but we weren't expecting it to come up like this. You might as well know the whole story though." Marusu nodded to his wife, indicating for her take over.

"When my husband and I married, we wanted to have lots of children," Afurodite began. "We tried for many years, and I got pregnant three times, but three times I miscarried early into the pregnancy. So finally we decided to visit a specialist and see if there was anything that could be done about this. He gave me some fertility drugs, and again, I got pregnant. Though getting pregnant wasn't the trouble, it was carrying the baby to term that seemed to be impossible for me." Afurodite's voice broke again, but again, she was strong and continued on with her story. "So I am pregnant again, fourth time, and the doctor confined me to bed rest. He told me that I was almost to weak to have a child, and that any strenuous activity or stress would cause me to miscarry again. So there I lay, pregnant and dormant, but I went five months this time. For the first time, I watched my belly grow. It hadn't gotten extremely big, but I definitely looked pregnant, and I was happy for the first time in years. Then, my mother died."

The room was silent. Videl was grasping Gohan's hand in a death grip, not enough to hurt him, but communicating to him that she was so thankful nothing like that had happened to them when she got pregnant with Pan. Trunks and Goten stared at the floor, unwilling to make eye-contact with Afurodite. The other fighters looked solemn, feeling the Grishinwa's pain.

"I was devastated, and depressed," Afurodite continued. "It was too much for me. As much as I tried to block it out so that I could save my baby's life, I could not. I was very close to my mother, and had spoken with her often during my pregnancy. She kept me optimistic. But she did not tell me of her illness, trying to spare me, to keep me stress free so that I could have my baby, but her time came before she was ready. I was totally shocked, and tried to, as I said, put it in the back of mind, but I couldn't take it. I lasted another month, then lost our daughter." Videl's hiccup interrupted Afurodite's speech.

"They told us it was a girl," Afurodite whispered, her tightened throat kept her from emitting anything louder than that. "But I was just too weak. It wasn't meant to be. Anyway, years passed, at the time I was about 25, so about 10 years passed, before we met…her."

"Her?" Goku asked.

"Yes her, Zeusu's mother. She was a beauty. Long, golden hair, bright blue eyes, but pale, miserable looking. She was beautiful yes, but she was a wreck when we saw her. It appeared that she had just given birth to him, but, she was trying to kill him!"

"What?" Piccolo asked, stunned himself.

"Yes, we had decided to take an evening stroll by the sea in Greek Town, the city we formerly occupied, and we saw her, attempting to toss him over a bridge to drown in the desolate sea below. She was crying hard, hair all about, red face, she was a mess. She seemed to not be able to go through with killing the child, yet she wanted to so badly. Here we are, having miscarried four times, not able to have children, being tossed around by the adoption system, wanting children of our own so badly, and here is this woman, effortlessly making life, and just as eager to take it away. So I ran to her, begging her to stop, to reconsider. I couldn't just let her slay this child, he couldn't have been any more than a few hours old. He wasn't even cleaned off. I told her if she didn't want him, to let me have him, and take him home. She refused, said that he needed to die, that we was a spawn of evil or something, but I wouldn't hear of it. We ended up paying her a lump sum of money to let us take him. She was still reluctant to give him up, but we finally persuaded her. We ended up taking them both home with us, cleaning her up, then she went on her way without a second glance. Haven't heard from her since."

"Hmm," Piccolo murmured. "That's awfully strange that she would want to kill him so badly."

"Yes I know," Afurodite agreed. "But she never did elaborate on that, and Zeusu has been a perfect angel. I mean sure he got in trouble some when he was younger, but like normal kids do. He was a good kid, still is, so I really have no idea what she meant."

"But the thing is," Marusu said, "is that we haven't told him any of this. He doesn't even know that we are not his real parents. We don't want him to find out like this."

"Were you ever going to tell him," Yamcha asked.

"I suppose so," Afurodite answered sadly. "Someday, but it wasn't going to be today. My goodness we've always treated him like he was ours. He is ours! Always will be, but we might lose his trust if he finds out, or something. If there was a way that we could let him know all this but leaving out the part where we aren't his parents then…" Suddenly, Afurodite stopped, wide-eyed.

"Brolli!" Krillin said, jumping up in defensive stance.

"I sense it too," Gohan said, feeling the all too familiar aura vibrate through the room. But no, it wasn't Brolli. A young boy, about Trunks height, entered the room. He had blonde hair, and blue eyes, but Brolli's face no mistaking that. He looked just like him, almost as Trunks looked just like Vegeta minus the hair and eye color. There stood, Zeusu, glancing around curiously at these strange visitors gathered in his house. He had only caught the end of Afurodite's statement, but it didn't make much sense to him.

"Mom, Dad, what's going on?"


	7. Chapter 7 Emptiness

Chapter 7: Emptiness

Zeusu stood in the middle of the large entertainment room, with his guests and parents located on all sides, trying to make sense out of the conversation he had just walked in on. He stood there, with his short, sandy blonde hair going off in every direction. He stood there, with his innocent blue eyes, penetrating through his mother with his wondering gaze, like a knife through melted butter. He stood there, with Brolli's face, his weakened aura, his scent, triggering old suppressed memories of ancient battles with the legendary Super Saiyajin himself inside the Z-fighters.

"What did you say Mom?" Zeusu asked quietly. He hadn't had the best day. He refrained from participating in school sports because something inside of him just would not let him compete. As much as he wanted to play football (American football) some invisible chain always snapped him back from signing up. He always dressed nicely, as if the others didn't, but because he had just a little more money than the average rich kid, he dressed extra nice, and got taunts in return. He was always referred to as a "pussy" because he would not sign up for football, or any sports, and he seemed to spend more time on his looks (which he did not, he never could fix his hair so he gave up, he wore what his parents bought him, had they bought him rags he would have worn them with his chin held high) and this got people questioning his sexuality, mainly the young men at the school. Nearly the entire male population at Myth City High School signed up for football tryouts, minus the nerds, slackers, and Zeusu, who seemed to fit in neither category. Many of the young women of the school thought nothing of the sort, his nice, yet slightly messy look seemed to be a major turn on for them, so most of his actual friends were girls, which only added more dents in Zeusu's questionable character.

Zeusu had nothing against homosexuals, but no one likes to be labeled something they were not, especially if a negative tone was applied to it. Though Zeusu was not lacking in friends, he wanted more guy friends, guys he could talk to about girls, guys that would understand some of the stuff he was going through growing up, just a guy to hang out with. But what he wanted most was acceptance. Yet he was denied decent treatment because he just couldn't play football. Damn that sport.

Nonetheless, Zeusu's school day was everything but peachy, and he walked home to a bunch of strangers having a deep discussion about him. What the hell? He had heard actually quite a bit of the end of Afurodite's statement in the foyer, though it was quite a ways from the entertainment room. Zeusu never thought that there was something wrong with him being to hear that far away, he thought it was normal, whereas the butler had really no idea what was going on when he stood beside Zeusu in the foyer.

Afurodite sighed, along with Marusu. She looked up at the Z-fighters and said, "we need to have a talk alone with our son for a few minutes. We'll tell him what's going on. Why don't you all help yourselves to our kitchen? Jaku can show you the way." Goku was the first one up and out of the door before anyone could blink, with the rest of the pack following suit, leaving the butler staring after them in confusion and wonderment.

"Sit down Son," Marusu said, motioning for his son to take a seat. Zeusu obediently settled himself in a nearby armchair, but he already knew what his parents were going to tell him. He just didn't want it to be true…

"I'm sorry we never told you this before today," Afurodite said, teary-eyed, "but some things have come up where you need to know now. We were going to tell you eventually, but eventually has caught up with us." Zeusu just sat still, expressionless, he knew now.

"The truth is," Marusu said, "you are not our biological son, BUT THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT YOU ARE OUR SON," Marusu emphasized, not wanting his son to feel any different with this new information. But it was too late.

"I can't believe this," Zeusu whispered, staring hard at the floor, still not able to come to terms with the awful truth.

"Honey--" Afurodite began.

"What do they have to do with this?" Zeusu asked coldly.

"Who?" Marusu asked.

"Our strange guests. "

"Oh, that is another matter," Afurodite answered. "They came to protect you. They told us that your father, was a…a…super something, and that makes you strong too. Someone is coming to try and kidnap you. They want to take you back with them and train you to help them fight this alien."

"Hmph," Zeusu grunted. "Fighting aliens huh, like I'm supposed to be some super hero? I don't feel very strong. But then I felt like I was your son, so that doesn't surprise me. Guess I am strong." With that, Zeusu got up and retreated to his room. Afurodite and Marusu just stared after him in silence.

*****

Once Zeusu entered his private chambers, he immediately began packing his things. He hadn't actually agreed on going, but it seemed his parents, well if he could still call them that, wanted him to go. Plus deep down inside, he felt the need to go. It was the perfect escape from the hell whole he was living in now. And training…sounded like no school was in the regimen, also a plus. He didn't really know what kind of training they had in mind, but anything beats going back to Myth City High.

Zeusu tried to keep his hopes up on his upcoming adventure, but he just couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling of betrayal. His chest burned with anger as he tried to come up with reasons why his parents lied to him about what really happened. How could they not tell him? How could they make him think he was theirs? It never occurred to him that he looked nothing like them, but a lot of kids were that way. He felt so, empty. Like everything that he was, just flew out the window and left him stripped and unidentified. Before he walked in his house today, he knew who he was, Zeusu Grishinwa, a boy battling some inner and outer conflicts that would be dealt with. Now, everything was erased, he was not even Zeusu Grishinwa anymore, he didn't know who he was. _Why did you do this to me, huh? How could you pretend that I belonged to you? Who do I belong to? Who am I know? Those people I used to call Grandma and Grandpa, don't exist anymore, we are not even related, yet they pretended too. Why? Why didn't my mother want me? Was I a bad baby, or young kid too far back to remember? Who is my real family? Why do I feel so disconnected now? Or have I always felt disconnected, but didn't know why? _(Zeusu did not overhear Afurodite speaking of his mother trying to kill him)

Zeusu sat on his bed, face covered delicately with his hands. He tried hard to come to grips with what had just happened. Had they given him a few days forewarning, maybe he would be able to accept it some how. He tried hard not to get too terribly upset with his parents, but now he just could not look at them the same. They were not his blood, he was indeed, not the spawn of their love-making as he had prided himself in believing just a few hours ago. He thought his parents were the perfect couple, they rarely fought, they gave him everything he wanted, yet he, nor they, took advantage, it was all in harmony. It was something that Zeusu knew money couldn't buy, like in so many other relationships, something special, rare, and he was apart of it. Was, now it was all washed away.

What made him then? What happened to his super whatever father? And his mother, where was she? Did they love each other? Did the die? Where they good people like his parents? But no, they weren't his parents, just some people that took him in. It was almost too much for his already tired body and soul to take right now. Yes, he had to leave, right away. Get away from this treachery, from that awful school, with its thousands of kids, all the same, rich, spoiled kids. Zeusu continued his packing, taking only clothing, which was pretty much all he had to pack. He wasn't much of a "stuff" collector, only other things in his neatly kept, yet bare room, was a chest of drawers, night stand and a stack of CD's. He quickly scooped up some of his favorites, before finally stuffing everything into one of those nifty capsules. _Whoever invented these things must be filthy rich,_ Zeusu thought to himself as he finished up the remainder of his preparation to leave.

*****

Two hours later, the whole group was ready to head out again. The Z-gang spent most of the two hours that passed since Zeusu's arrival eating almost everything in the Grishinwa kitchen and astonishing the cooks and the butler, who watched in awe as it seemed the whole pantry was just about emptied. Zeusu descended the stairs from his room with a blank expression. This day had turned out to be one of the worst days, yet it almost meant turning over a new life and having a different life. He was ready.

Afurodite and Marusu hugged their son, though he did not make an attempt to return the gesture. "Call us when you get to wherever they are taking you ok?" Afurodite said teary-eyed again. She stroked his unruly hair, but still his eyes remained expressionless.

"Ok," he replied stiffly. The Grishinwa's walked their departing guests outside, where Trunks opened up a copter capsule for all of them to travel in. Everyone piled into the rather spacey aircraft, with the Grishinwa's saying their good-byes.

"Be safe!" Afurodite yelled as Krillin started the engine.

"Call us when you get there Son," Marusu bellowed over the roar of the engine. Zeusu just knodded. Despite the previous events that lead up to this point, he was going to really miss his parents, or guardians now, since they weren't even related. Nevertheless he was determined to make the best of this new journey.

*****

"Which direction from here Trunks?" Krillin asked as they took flight. 

Trunks rummaged though his capsules and pulled out the one that had his map tucked away. "From what my mom said, go northeast from here, the next city is called Senshi."

"Senshi?" Zeusu asked. "That's like over a thousand miles from here, is that where you guys are going to train me?"

"No," Piccolo answered. "That is where we will find one of your two sisters."

"I have sisters?" Zeusu whispered. He had never had the pleasure of having a sibling, but now all of a sudden he had two! How his life changed in just a blink of an eye. He would have never known.

"Yes, they too have inherited your father's strength," Piccolo informed him. Zeusu just knodded. He still didn't fully understand what was going on, he would have them explain it to him later though. 

Zeusu took this time to study his new companions. He took a seat beside Goten and Trunks since they seemed about his age. They were talking amongst themselves. _They look like best friends, _Zeusu thought to himself, as they seemed to joke around. _Hope I get a chance to be friends with them too._ They actually looked very familiar to him, like he'd seen them some where before, but he wasn't quite sure.

Zeusu turned his gaze to Piccolo and Goku, who were standing next each other, not talking. They too, looked strangely familiar, what was going on here? And what the hell was Piccolo supposed to be? Once Zeusu actually got a good look at all of them, he felt like he had déjà vu. Where had he seen all these people. He returned his stare back to Videl, she started to stick out in his mind somewhere. He knew her, she was supposed to be famous…

"If you don't mind me asking," Zeusu finally said, "who are all of you. You look so familiar to me."

"I am Goten Son," Goten said cheerfully, extending his hand, which Zeusu gladly shook.

"I'm Trunks Brief," Trunks said calmly, extending his hand as well. Zeusu stared hard at him for a bit, then it hit him. 

"Trunks Brief, that won the Junior World Tournament when I was eight," Zeusu exclaimed. "And beat Mr. Satan, haha, that was great. You Goten, now I know you too, you were in the final with Trunks, I remember. My parents took me as a birthday gift. Who would have thought that I would get to meet you guys. You guys were my heroes!" Everyone else laughed. Zeusu was elated, this day had turned out better than expected. "I know that was a long time ago, but I still think it was awesome. I'll never forget that."

"Thanks," Trunks said modestly. He wasn't one that liked to be in the spotlight.

Zeusu turned again to Videl, then a rush of memories flooded his mind. "You are Videl Satan, the great Mr. Satan's daughter! Though I wasn't born when Cell was here, they made us learn about how your father saved us from him in History class. And you were in the tournament too. You're just older now." Videl smiled back.

"Yeah that's me, but I'm Videl Son now." Videl winked at Gohan, who slightly blushed.

"Who is he," Zeusu said, pointing at Gohan. "I don't really remember him."

"That," Videl said with a smirk, "is the former Great Saiyaman, my husband Gohan Son."

"Oh the Great Saiyaman, no wonder I didn't remember you, you had a costume on." Gohan smiled sheepishly, taking off his glasses to polish them on his shirt.

"I think I remember all of you from that tournament, now I remember number 18, she was in the final with Mr. Satan!" Eighteen raised an eyebrow, but did not smile. Zeusu didn't seem to notice.

"I'm Krillin, 18's husband," Krillin said from behind the wheel, glancing back to give Zeusu a quick smile.

"I'm Yamcha," Yamcha said politely. "I didn't fight in the tournament." 

"Ok," Zeusu said, smiling like a child receiving a toy they really wanted for a gift.

"I'm Goku," Goku said in his characteristic jolliness. "That is Piccolo," he said pointing towards the Namek who replied with a small nod.

"Cool," Zeusu said excitedly. "Just hope I can remember all of your names."

The excitement died down after a few minutes, and the inside of the speedy copter was virtually silent. Goten nodded off to sleep every now and then, Trunks pulled out the map and some of the photos his mother packed away to study some more, and everyone else seemed to stare off into space. Zeusu was still not quite used to these new people, and got a little nervous when no one would speak. He cautiously slid his body around to be seated next to Trunks and silently studied the information he had. After several minutes, Zeusu finally spoke up.

"How did you know it was me, Trunks?" Zeusu asked, after he realized he still wasn't quite sure what was going on. Zeusu placed his index finger directly in the middle of his cheek and slid it down his face, as if thinking about something. Trunks thought this an odd habit, but began to answer Zeusu's question anyway.

"Well," Trunks began with a sigh, as he began to fold up his map, "it's a rather long story, but we have time. I'll try not to bore you." Trunks smiled, and Zeusu returned the gesture. Trunks noticed how utterly innocent Zeusu looked. He really had no clue what his life was really about, what it might turn in to, where he was from, nothing. Trunks thought it rather unfair that Zeusu was deprived of knowing the secrets that lay in his past, haphazardly covered up. Only time would tell how he would react to this big change. 

"Alright," Trunks said, "lets start with your father. His name was Brolli. He was from Planet Vegeta along with my father, Prince Vegeta, and Goku, who's saiyajin name is Kakarot."

"What's a saiyajin, exactly?" Zeusu said. He looked genuinely interested.

"Well a saiyajin is just an inhabitant from Planet Vegeta, that are almost exactly like humans from Earth, except they have tails, and incredible power. But we also have a minor setback within our genetic make-up. Like werewolves, saiyajins transform in the midst of a full moon into huge gorillas with extraordinary power, and we are quite dangerous, because we have no control. That's why none of us have tails anymore, without the tail we can't transform. I know it sounds funny, but that's just the way it is.

"Anyway," Trunks continued, "your father was known as the Legendary Super Saiyajin, he was able to transform, you know, make our hair golden and our eyes green, without excessive training. But your father, I'm sorry to say, was a dangerous man. He had something out for Goku, and he repeatedly tried to destroy him, but failed. He almost had no control over himself either. Well we finally destroyed him, for what we thought was for good." Here Trunks stopped, Zeusu looked grief stricken. It must be hard to wake up one day and find out that your parents aren't really your parents and that your father was a maniac. Trunks felt for him. "Hey are you ok?"

"Yeah," Zeusu said, instantly shaking himself as to rid his body of the sadness that crept around him. "Please continue." In truth, Zeusu felt as if he were breaking inside. If his father was supposed to be like the gold fighters he'd seen at the tournament when he was younger, wasn't he supposed to be a good guy?

"Well, as sci-fi as this sounds, across the galaxy, an evil lord, goes by the name of Iriyoku, is out to try and kidnap you, your sisters, and resurrect your father, and use you guys to take over the Earth, then the rest of the universe. He studied your father and you guys, calculated your potential strengths and decided that he needed you guys to help him."

"Well I'm not one to exactly be bossed around," Zeusu said defiantly, puffing out his muscular chest, despite his lack of weight training.

"Well," Trunks said with a smirk, surprised at Zeusu's defense, yet all the same happy to see the fighting spirit inside him, waiting to be let loose, "Lord Iriyoku has some magic up his sleeves, and would have used it to take over your mind, then he would have trained you to become a very strong fighter, maybe even stronger than us, and the whole Earth would have been doomed."

"Oh I see," Zeusu murmured to himself, running his hands through his sandy ruffled hair, revealing a characteristic saiyan hair line. "But how did you know I was one of them, how did you find me?"

"My mother has a huge lab and her own satellite," Trunks said. "We found out that Iriyoku discovered our planet with probes, so Goten and I went back to my mother's lab to hook up her satellite and see if we could find it, then intercept the information on it. It turns out that a lot of Iriyoku's men are here already, and they were on the brink of nabbing you guys before we got a chance to save you. It had your addresses on there and since Iriyoku trained his men to detect your energy pattern, they led us to you."

"My energy pattern?" Zeusu asked?

"Hmm," Trunks said, not sure how to explain it. "Well when we get you trained, you'll know more about what I'm talking about. When you get extremely strong, its like others can feel your vibes. When you first walked in the room we were all sitting in, it felt just like your father had entered. You're almost just like him Zeusu, in a good way I mean. You definitely have his strength within you." Zeusu looked a bit proud now, and Trunks felt a bit better.

"Well you must be pretty well off if your mom has her own satellite," Zeusu said once the current information he was given sunk in. Goten chose this time to awaken from his short nap.

"That's because his mother owns the Capsule Corporation," Goten said sleepily, rubbing his eyes and stretching obnoxiously.

"Your mom," Zeusu whispered, clearly surprised. "Your…mom…is Bulma Briefs?"

"Yeah that's her," Trunks said shyly. 

"Wow talk about being famous!" Zeusu exclaimed, a bit loud since everyone on board the copter turned and stared at the conversing three. "Sorry," he muttered, bowing his head in embarrassment. He quickly got over it and turned to Trunks once again, with a look of eagerness, and almost desperation plastered on his young face. "What's the name of my sister that we are looking for in Senshi?"

"Um," Trunks mumbled as he dug out some info, "her name is Shinobi Bushi."

"Shinobi…" Zeusu said to himself, turning away and losing himself in the tide of realizations that washed over his body. Shinobi was a beautiful name, it would belong to his sister, at least one of them anyway. Zeusu pondered on whether they would look anything alike, maybe they had the same mannerisms, or the same messy hair. Zeusu chuckled at the thought of a girl being cursed with his hair. He couldn't wait to meet her, yet he was afraid of what he might see. Since Trunks said his father used to be a bad guy, maybe she was too?

But something kept tugging in the back of Zeusu's mind about Shinobi. He knew they had come in contact before now that he thought about it. His parents had taken him to Senshi to actually visit his paternal grandparents. He had been about ten at the time. His grandparents had taken him to the park to play, when a girl a few years older than him just happened to walk by as he was swinging. Zeusu had felt a strange sensation go through his body, almost like déjà vu but not quite. She stopped and stared at him with her penetrating, yet innocent blue eyes, the same as his, as if she had felt the spark too, but then quickly shrugged it off and walked on. Ever since that brief instance, Zeusu always felt like a part of him was lost somewhere in Senshi, but he had immediately thought that it was his grandparents that kept his part of his heart stored away within them. Now he thought otherwise, it was that girl…Shinobi…

At that instant, another realization came to him. He know knew what was keeping him from playing football or any other sports. Deep down, Zeusu knew that he would seriously hurt someone playing sports, because he strength far surpassed that of an average human. Perhaps also that is why his hair was so messy! He took a good look at Goten and chuckled to himself, _yeah I think this shaggy hair is a saiyajin thing. _ It seemed that when his whole life was about to fall apart, and none of it made sense, a simple twist of events turned the meaning of his life around to where he could actually understand it.

Two hours after the Z-warriors and their new companion left Myth City, they safely landed on the outskirts of Senshi. It was a rather small town, not anything like Myth City. No tall sky scrapers, or endless sidewalks void of people. As a matter of fact, it seemed this city was rather heavily populated, for its small size. 

Krillin returned the copter to its capsule as soon as everyone exited the aircraft. Trunks pulled out his maps and tried to get a sense of their location in relation to where Shinobi was supposed to be found. "Lets see," he mused out loud, with all the other members crowding around, including Yamcha. "She actually lives about a mile from here, and if we go around the outskirts, we can fly-" Trunks stopped short when he realized Zeusu didn't know how to fly. "Nah we'll get there just fine if we walk, only 10-15 minutes." 

Since they were taking the back way, the Z-fighters decided to stick together, not many people would notice them if they kept out of site. The actual city looked rather nice, and cozy. The atmosphere here wasn't nearly as uptight as it was in Myth City, where it seemed a sin to miss a step in the beat of everyday life there. Here it was much more relaxed. Fast-paced walking got the group in front of an apartment building in about 10 minutes. A large, plain white building stood before them, about 10 stories high. Trunks walked up to the doorstep and rang the bell marked Bushi. They all waited about a minute, then Trunks rang it again. No answer.

"Maybe she is still at school," Goten said as Trunks turned back towards the group in frustration.

"If she is its because she's in detention or something," Trunks said tiredly. "It's almost 6 pm, I seriously doubt she is there."

"Well maybe she does play sports and is having a late practice?" Zeusu said meekly, not sure if he had the right to comment yet.

"Well let me try," Goku said at last. Trunks moved out of the way and Goku rang the bell marked Boman on accident.

"Hello?" a feeble voice barely said back.

"Hello?" Goku answered, scratching his head. Wasn't Shinobi supposed to be a young woman?

"What do you want?" the woman asked sharply

"We've come to speak to Shinobi Bushi ma'am, are you her mother," Piccolo asked, stepping up.

"Shinobi Bushi?" the woman asked, then laughed slightly. "I'm sorry sirs but you have the wrong apartment. Shinobi is probably still at work anyway."

"Do you know where she works ma'am," Piccolo asked patiently.

"Who wants to know," the woman said defensively. "Sounds like two males out there, how am I to know you won't do any harm to her. She's just a girl, you stay away from her!" Piccolo's facial expression turned to one of exasperation and the rest of the Z-fighters sighed impatiently. This was not going well.

"We aren't going to hurt her, she needs our help," Yamcha bellowed, since he was towards the back of the group and wanted to be heard. He was pretty tired of this hunt already, and almost wished he hadn't come.

"What, another young man?" the old woman said surprised. "What on earth is going on here?"

"Excuse me," a strong womanly voice said from behind the Z-fighters. Everyone turned to look at where the sound had come from, and there stood a dark haired girl, no taller than Videl. Her dark brown hair was wavy and to her shoulders, beautifully cupping her small face. She had Zeusu's nose, and most noticeably, his eyes. Her eyes were just as strong and determined looking as that of her little half brother standing in front her. The invisible ki swirling around her girlish frame was the last clue that gave away her identity. Shinobi had returned from work.


	8. Chapter 8 Brolli's Daughter

Chapter 8: Brolli's Daughter

Dusk was making its appearance as the sun was sinking and the sky was darkening. A faint chilly wind whispered by, as if announcing that the sun was saying good-bye for the day. Shinobi stood in the apartment complex surrounded on all sides by white apartment buildings, with her arms folded stiffly across her chest, and a very annoyed look on her face. 

It appeared that Shinobi had had a long day. Her eyes were icy, one thing that didn't appear in Zeusu's character. They were the same bright color yes, but Shinobi's were of a different mood. She also had a slight tan, and as mentioned, dark brown wavy hair as opposed to her younger brother. Shinobi gave off a somewhat negative energy, though not necessarily hostile, more so anger. This worried the Z-fighters slightly, her negative ki could make it easy for Iriyoku to change her to Majin. If she hadn't given off that familiar ki that brought back memories of Brolli, they might have mistaken her for Vegeta's long lost daughter.

"I don't know what you guys are staring at," she said bluntly, "but I've just returned from working some long , excruciatingly boring hours and I'd like to get to my apartment and rest now. So get out of my way…please." Everyone was surprised at the gruffness of her voice. It was somewhat low and womanly, not loud, nor soft, but convicting despite the slight drag in her speech. She looked and sounded like the type that easily got her way.

"Are you Shinobi Bushi?" Piccolo asked, unaffected by her rather anti-social stature. Shinobi blinked a few times in astonishment, wondering how in the world he could have guessed that. She then marched right up to Piccolo, who ended up being about a head and shoulders taller than she, but it did not affect her confidence. She stared straight up into his eyes and put her hands on her small hips.

"And what if I am?" she asked, with a slight smile, but seriousness rang in her tone of voice.

"We have some matters we would all like to discuss with you," Piccolo answered calmly, as if she had nicely asked him the time of day. Shinobi was a little discouraged that Piccolo hadn't so much as faltered from her supposedly intimidating mannerisms, but she stood her ground.

"I'm not in the mood for chit-chat," Shinobi said airily, looking bored. She turned her icy glare onto the rest of the group, and sighed. None of them looked familiar to her, but they did all have a certain air of confidence that was enough to make Shinobi a little nervous. She was out numbered by far, though the group strangely didn't seem threatening. This caught her interest. _If they don't mean to harm me, what do they want then?_ Shinobi tried not to show her interest, but was beginning to fail. A curious glint could be caught in her stony eyes, which gave everyone else around her relief. She might cooperate after all. After a brief tense silence, Shinobi finally spoke again. "So what is this about anyway, did I do something wrong? Have some secret treasure hidden in my apartment? The Mafia is out to get me? Or let me guess, I'm really a long lost princess of some corrupted kingdom and you need me to take the thrown and bring back the order, ha," Shinobi ended sarcastically. She glanced around the group again and her gaze fell and stopped on the youngsters. She was strangely drawn to the blonde kid, he looked remotely familiar to her after all. They with the purple hair was kind of cute…the kid with the black messy hair was slightly interesting looking as well, but he didn't look as serious as the violet haired young man. She wasn't sure which one she liked more. But again she unconsciously tore her gaze from those two and landed it on Zeusu. _What is it about that kid that looks so…like me…what? _

Zeusu began to look uncomfortable under Shinobi's scrutiny, so he started to squirm nervously, which gave Shinobi more confidence. That was more like it, she was used to people being intimidated by her. Zeusu, on the other hand, was not impressed by Shinobi's attitude. She didn't come off as the friendly type, more so the hostile type; she seemed like the type of girl that spoke her mind, without any regard for other's feelings. Zeusu knew that it might be too soon to make such a judgment, but by the looks of things she fit the profile, beautiful yet arrogant and rude. He didn't really want her to be his long lost sister. He knew she had no reason to trust them and every right to be rude to strangers that strangely knew her name, but her attitude when she first appeared had been sour, which was a minus.

"Something along those lines," Piccolo stated, answering Shinobi's previous question.

"Ha, is that so?" Shinobi said with a slight laugh, and a sarcastic grin on her face. "Well," she said with a more serious tone in her low voice, "lets hear it. I know you don't think I'm going to invite a group of total strangers inside my apartment."  


"Your choice," Piccolo said. "Well to start out--"

"Wait!" Trunks hissed, cutting Piccolo off. "They are around here somewhere, they might hear and jump us or something."

"Whose around here?" Shinobi asked in her usual bored drawl (not to be mistaken with a southern, hick drawl, think more like Angelina Jolie's voice, the way she talks), but her eyes were giving away to worry.

"They are the reason we are here right now, but we can't say, they might find out somehow that we are here if we keep talking out here," Trunks continued to whisper. "That's why we need to go inside so that we don't attract attention to ourselves. Lets talk in the hallway if you don't want to take us to your apartment, but we need to go inside. We won't hurt you, I promise." Shinobi gave the first real resemblance of a genuine smile, and then hastily led them inside. 

As they all followed suit, Yamcha couldn't help but be impressed with how smart Trunks had been when he handled the situation. He himself hadn't thought of being overheard, it just hadn't occurred to him. Maybe Trunks was more like Bulma than Vegeta after all. He had noticed that Trunks didn't seem his arrogant self today, perhaps because Vegeta wasn't around, or maybe he grew out of it. He hadn't seen the kid since the tournament, he had been a conceited brat then, a true spawn of Vegeta's ego, though Yamcha never let it show that it bothered him so. If that was the case, Yamcha might find being around Trunks more tolerable. He hoped it would get better, right now he was aching inside to just fly away somewhere secluded to scream at the top of his lungs in suppressed years of hurt and rage. One of these days he was going to have to get it out on his own, if not then it would build up until he could take no more, then no telling what would happen…

The group entered a dimly lit hallway right inside the entrance of the apartment building. The eerie dismal yellow light given off by an ancient looking light fixture was enough to dampen any cheery mood that dared enter. Dark red carpeted stairs were immediately located to the right of the entrance leading to the next floor, but Shinobi passed by them and led her unexpected guests down the dreary hallway until they were located directly under the light fixture so they could see more clearly. "Lets talk here," Shinobi said dryly as she rested her back against the dingy wall. "Now seriously, what the hell is going on?" The rest of the Z-fighters crowded around her in the rather narrow hallway, almost too small to accommodate them.

"As I was saying," Piccolo said once he was settled in his spot, "I'm going to try and keep this short, if you want to know more ask later but we really need to keep moving as to not be detected as Trunks pointed out."

_Trunks huh, _Shinobi thought to herself as she glanced quickly in his direction before she returned her 

attention to Piccolo. _Interesting name, you're not so bad looking either._ Shinobi quickly snapped out of 

her reverie and focused on what Piccolo was telling her. It seemed drastically important, and this excited 

Shinobi. Nothing in her life or about it had ever been important, not enough where groups of people were

showing up on her doorstep.

"I don't know much about your personal life," Piccolo said, "but I'm going to assume you don't know 

who your father was." Shinobi nodded her head slightly. "Well the truth is, your father was a Saiyajin, 

from Planet Vegeta, and he had extraordinary power, that you have inherited." Shinobi stared at Piccolo, dazed, but motioned for him to continue. "Well," Piccolo said, "Lord Iriyoku from Planet Jepido has been looking for you and your siblings to manipulate your mind and trick you into fighting for him to help take over Earth, and whatever other planets look fit in his eyes."

"Now just wait a minute," Shinobi said, holding up her hands to show her frustration. "You're saying my father is an alien, and that some guy wants me to fight for him to help take over the Earth? I'm sorry but that sounds a bit far-fetched, especially since in reality, I don't have superhuman strength so that would be a waste. I mean you had me going with my father being alien and all, I mean since I never met the guy he could very well be and that would explain a lot of things about my life. But I'm not a super hero."

"Well that's true, you're not especially strong right now," Piccolo answered calmly, which again irked Shinobi. She just couldn't understand how this guy could not be in the least intimidated. It was clear she wasn't buying it, she expected him to at least look desperate in his attempt to persuade her to travel with them. "Iriyoku would just train you until you reached your full potential and then come back to finish the job off. Plus he knows Majin, which is a form of wizardry that he would use to make you even stronger than you're full capacity for power. Believe us, we've seen it in action, and it would pretty much mean the end for us and the Earth."

Shinobi knew she had no good reason to trust them, yet she couldn't help but believe every word Piccolo said. It wouldn't mean a whole lot if strangers from around town had walked up to her and known her name, it wasn't a very large town and it wasn't uncommon. She at least knew all the faces that she came in contact with when she was working at the local record store, maybe not their names but their faces. But these guys, she had never seen before. Plus they all seemed to be genuinely serious about this whole ordeal, so either this stuff was true, or they were all mentally ill. "How do I know this isn't all just some big sick joke?" Shinobi asked angrily, still keeping up her defense. She wasn't about to let them just whisk her off that quickly.

"You just have to trust us," Goku spoke up. "Deep down you know we are telling you the truth."

The innocence in Goku's voice did the trick. She was totally convinced, even after long years of being a total pessimist, and one of the most difficult persons that some people have ever come in contact with, she was hooked. Even though she could continue arguing over it for another two hours if she wanted to, she just didn't have the heart this time, they seemed to be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"Well," she finally said, "what is it you want me to do?"

"Come with us," Piccolo answered. "We will train you to fight for the Earth. We will help you achieve your maximum power level. You will be far stronger than most of us standing here. But we will fight along side you until we claim victory over Iriyoku. He must be destroyed, merely defeating him will not do the trick, he will just keep coming at us until he finds a way to break through and snatch you and your siblings away. Then it is pretty much over for us, so we cannot allow that to happen. He must be killed."

Shinobi was in awe of what she was asked to do. Never in her life had she amounted to anything. She had never been special, never been counted on. She couldn't even count on others, not even her own parents, for that matter she didn't even know who either of them were. Her life had been filled with bouncing from home to home since she had been a natural born terrorist. She never made any friends with her attitude, and scared most boys away so she hadn't been in many relationships. She was a loner, but not necessarily an outcast. Her beauty made her approachable, but her demeanor crushed any hopes of starting up new friendships, thus pegging her an outsider. Yet here and now, she was being asked to help save the world, a world full of people she didn't even care for, but the job alone was enough to turn her life around. No more boring small town, no more annoying people, no more boring job, no more trashed life. It was all too easy to give up, anything was better than staying here. She had always dreamt of leaving, and now she was being given a free ride out of here, plus a large task to conquer. Shinobi didn't know if she was up for the challenge of training to be a super hero, but she was definitely ready to take a hike out of Sensei.

"Ok," she said slowly, "but before I go anywhere, who are all of you, your names I mean."

"Piccolo."

"Krillin."

"Number 18."

"Gohan."

"Videl."

"Goten."

"Trunks."

"Zeusu."

"Yamcha."

"Tien."

"And I'm Goku," Goku said cheerfully, ending the sound off. "By the way, Zeusu is your little brother." Zeusu smiled at Shinobi shyly, as she gawked at her new family member.

_No wonder I thought he looked like me,_ she thought to herself. She never had family before, she felt a little weird now that she knew. This day would definitely make a mark in her history book. Her life had just been flipped upside down.

"After we leave here, will be on our way to pick up your younger sister," Krillin added. Shinobi's jaw seemed to drop even farther. Another one! Wow this was, strange. She didn't know whether to be ecstatic about having a brother and a sister, or upset that she had never known.

"Well," she said absentmindedly, still lost in her thoughts, "I'm going to go pack some things--uh how are we traveling? I didn't see a car anywhere, I don't have one, and I have some luggage…will there be enough room in whatever we are using?"

"We will be traveling in a copter," Trunks supplied. "There will be room for luggage but don't you have some capsules to put your clothes in?"

"Well I hadn't planned on leaving this place anytime soon, so I hadn't thought of buying any traveling capsules," Shinobi replied dryly, a little annoyance lingering in her tone. Trunks was taken aback by her reply, it was sarcastic, yet slightly insulting, as if she had been insulted and was returning the favor.

_She sure is temperamental,_ Trunks thought to himself.

"I have some extra if you would like to use them," Zeusu offered quietly, as if he were a tad afraid of his older sister. He began fishing around in his pocket for the few extra capsules he dropped in before he left his home.

Shinobi felt a little bad about intimidating her younger brother now that she knew who he was, so she gladly accepted his offering in an attempt to show she might care, and headed upstairs to her apartment to begin her packing. She didn't give any indication that her guests were welcome, so they all just stood awkwardly in the hallway waiting for her return.

Shinobi entered her tiny, dimly lit apartment, and headed straight for her bedroom. She wasn't much on collecting a lot of things so her packing was relatively easy. She opened one of the travel capsules Zeusu had given to her and started shoving clothing inside. She had a lot of clothes, in contrast to her environment. Her apartment was plain, only a table in the kitchen, a small couch in the tiny living room, a small television on a stand located in front of the couch. She didn't even have chairs at her table in the kitchen, she saw no need to get any. She thought of eating at the kitchen table more of a family thing, and since she had no family, she needed no chairs because she would never eat at the table, that's what the couch was for. Seiten had even offered to by her some chairs when he was over to visit a few times.

_Seiten…_Shinobi thought almost woefully. They had dated for quite some time. The one guy that refused to be intimidated by her. He was one of the few brave ones that managed to pass the test. Shinobi wasn't ever interested in relationships, but she would let them take her out a few times. Once they finally got the hint that she wasn't interested, they left her alone. But Seiten…not Seiten. He refused to give up on her. His perseverance was slowly eating away at the chip on Shinobi's shoulder. She actually started to like him. He was a very sweet young man, always nice to her even when she was being totally uncooperative. As if he understood her somehow, and accepted that she was who she was, and let it be that way. It was one of the strangest experiences of Shinobi's life. All the other guys had tried to change her, try to make her a good person, and she made sure they crashed and burned for it. She wasn't here to change. But, it seemed that Seiten knew this. He never made an attempt to ask her to apologize for being rude, or asked her why she was so mean, or anything of the sort. He just let her be, but stood beside.

That in itself, almost caused Shinobi to actually try to be a better person. Someone that would take so much abuse from her when she was in one of her moods, and take abuse from others in the town for being seen with her and taking her abuse, was enough to drive a person insane. But he did it, calmly, as if it were nothing to him. Then one night he told her he loved her. She was totally shocked. Even though it was Seiten that was saying this, it was almost impossible to love her, even she knew that. She also knew, that somewhere down the line, she began to love him too, but there was no way in hell she was going to admit that. Love was nothing but a stupid emotion that tore people open and broke them down. She was convinced it didn't even exist, since she had been abandoned as a small child. She had never felt it, or felt she was loved before, but love messed things up, especially when she was proving herself wrong by loving Seiten. But she refused to be wrong, and broke it off with Seiten right after that. She knew she would get over it quickly, but knew that he may not. Nevertheless, she put him in the back of her mind, and hoped he would stop calling. But he was no quitter, as if he had been expecting her to react that way. He always called to check up on her, asked her if she would like to have lunch, knowing she would say no, but he asked anyway.

Here Shinobi was though, about to disappear from this town, probably forever, and not even say good-bye to Seiten, the man that proved her wrong. She owed him that much, but she knew that if she called him, she might not go on this trip. It seemed terribly important to her visitors that she accompany them on their journey, and now it was terribly important that she go. Before she began her reverie on Seiten, she was stoked and ready to leave immediately. She know realized that it was Seiten all along that kept her here in the first place. Had he not come into her life, she would have saved up enough money and left long ago, there was nothing for her here…except him. But no, she was trying to forget him anyway, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. So Shinobi continued to stuff her suitcases full of clothing, she was taking whatever she could with her. 

Once Shinobi was finished with her clothes, she moved to the top of her dresser and mulled over whether to take the few items that were up there. The only things she had up there were gifts from Seiten, and some of the other guys that had taken her out. Shinobi knew that she was supposed to be putting him at the back of her mind, but she just couldn't leave the porcelain teddy bear, or the necklace with the heart locket that she would never wear. She gently gathered up those few items and packed them away amidst her clothing so they wouldn't get damaged. She would just use the trinkets to remind her of how close she was to true happiness. So close…

Zeusu had given Shinobi three capsules and she filled every one of them. She closed them up and secured them in her pants pocket. She grabbed a coat she had left out to wear, and was about to leave when she passed by the phone again. Shinobi wasn't notorious about feeling bad about anything, but it seemed to be the code for the day. She had felt bad about scaring her brother, and now she was feeling bad about leaving without any indication of what happened to her. Shinobi knew that Seiten would fall apart if he didn't hear from her at all and she was gone. He might think she died, or something awful. She knew she wasn't supposed to care but she did, so she decided to leave a message on her answering machine telling him and anyone else that had the balls to call her that she was gone. _If you are trying to reach Shinobi Bushi, she is not here right now. Actually, I am moving away, starting a new life elsewhere and will probably not be back. I am leaving this message so that no one will worry about my disappearance, but I'm sure I wouldn't have to worry about that anyway. At any rate, I am gone._

Shinobi knew the message would come off as abrupt, but she didn't care. At least he would know…

She opened the front door and took a long look at what she was leaving behind. She then stepped out into the hall and closed the door firmly behind her. She was about to lock it, then decided against it. She didn't have anything in there that was of worth besides the TV, and she had everything she needed, so she just left the key in the door. The landlord would have easy access to rent it out to someone else.

Shinobi began to descend the stairs, but could hear quiet talking in the corridor below. She knew that it was the group waiting for her, so she stopped just short of the last step and listened to what they were saying.

"…you felt that negative energy," Krillin said quietly. "That is not a good thing."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Yamcha added. "That makes it easier for Iriyoku to take over her mind. She's gonna have to shake that attitude or we'll be training her for him. Making his job easier."

"We have time," Goku said optimistically. "We still have a chance to save her, and us. She still has a chance to change. Just give it some time."

"How much time," Piccolo asked. "We have time yes, but not much. Maybe she shouldn't stay with Vegeta, I don't see those two getting along. Their relationship might only add more to her angst, I don't think we can afford that right now."

"No no," Goku protested, "it will be fine. She will be fine, just trust me. I can feel it."

"If you say so," Krillin said tiredly.

_So they are worried about my attitude huh, _Shinobi thought to herself. _They will try to change me like the others. Maybe this isn't such a good idea. _Shinobi pondered on whether to turn back, but then decided to go ahead and accompany them. Whether their intentions were to change her or not, the bottom line was that they needed her. She had never been needed before, the feeling was foreign to her, but she liked it. But if they aimed to change her as an underlying scheme, she would just make them wish they had never thought about it. Changing her ways was not an option, never had been, never would be.

"Hey I'm ready," Shinobi called out as she finally stepped off the stairway.

"Well then lets get out of here," Piccolo said, as the rest of the group followed suit. Piccolo retraced the steps they had taken to reach Shinobi's apartment complex until they reached the clearing they had landed in, which was on the outskirts of the small town. Shinobi worried a bit as she noticed where they were leading her. She began to wonder if it wasn't just a joke, but as she studied their faces constantly, nothing gave way. She hoped she could run fast enough and scream loud enough for help if they were to try and drag her off somewhere to hurt her.

Once they reached the spot they had landed in, everyone stepped back as Trunks pulled out a capsule and threw it to open up the copter they were going to travel in. This relieved Shinobi greatly. Everyone piled in and this time Yamcha took the wheel. 

"Which direction Trunks?" he asked quietly, hoping to disguise his disgust for having to ask Trunks anything.

"Our final destination is called Area Bridge. Its about 700 miles southeast of here, not nearly as far."

"Southeast it is then," Yamcha replied curtly, turning on the engine. Everyone else either buckled up or just stood up as Yamcha took off. Shinobi decided to sit alone, she wasn't really in the mood for making friends (actually, she never was). She still wanted to learn more about her brother, see if he was anything like her besides in looks, but she didn't have the nerve right now, plus she knew what they thought of her, and she wasn't about to give the satisfaction of seeing her making an attempt to be friendly. It wasn't her style, but she would get to know Zeusu some time, in private so others wouldn't see and assume what she didn't want them to.

"Finally down to the last one," Goten said with a yawn. "All this riding around is tiring and boring, but it beats school."

"That's the truth," Trunks agreed as he rested his head on the back of his seat. "But we are almost finished. Wonder what Area Bridge has in store for us…"

****

Author's note: I would like to thank all of the kind souls that read my story, especially the reviewers, your reviews let me know that I'm keeping it interesting. I'd like to especially thank Tony (celticsfantc@netscape.net) **for his review on fanfiction.net. You are proving to me that most people are getting out of my story what I want them too, and you asked all the right questions, that's what I want! Plus, one of your questions also sparked an idea in my head, which will probably make my story even better. Thank you all!**


	9. Chapter 9 Too Late?

Chapter 9: Too Late?

She lay on her tiny, sparsely decorated bed staring at the ceiling after spending hours trying to complete her homework. Math was the most difficult subject for her. She had to put a lot more effort into it than any other class, and still she was scraping by with a B- average, which was ruining her nearly perfect GPA. Her head hurt, her brain was tired, and she was drifting off into a dreamless sleep when her mother called out to her.

"Tenkei, sweetie, can you run to the store for me right quick?" Tenkei opened her eyes abruptly, and turned her body in the direction of her alarm clock, trying to focus in on the time. _Seven-thirty,_ she sighed to herself. She had drifted off for about 45 minutes. _What could she possibly need right this minute?_

"What do you want me to get Mama?" Tenkei answered reluctantly, knowing that she really had no choice.

"I have a headache and I can't find any aspirin, could you run out and get some for me," Jibo, Tenkei's mother asked.

"You mean we don't have any aspirin or Tylenol in the bathroom," Tenkei sighed, as she pulled herself up and began to slip on her shoes.

"I've looked everywhere honey, I think you took the last of it last night."

Tenkei wrinkled her eyebrow. She didn't remember taking any medication the night before, she knew she had had one of her nightmares but she didn't recall taking anything for it. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember very much at all, except the details of the pain she experienced in her nightmare, and that her back hurt when she awoke this morning in her mother's bed. She couldn't really remember how she even got to her mother room.

Tenkei slipped on a large, long red windbreaker that fit easily over her white tee shirt and tan shorts and headed out of her bedroom. A quick to the market was really everything but quick. Tenkei and her mother resided on the out skirts of Area Bridge, and the walk to the market was a good half hour. She quickly stopped in the bathroom and grabbed a small white item, dropping it in her jacket pocket, then continued on to the living room. When she entered her living room, she couldn't help but be reminded of the dream she had been plagued with the night before. It still scared her, and remembering it almost made her apprehensive about leaving her mother alone. What if something were to happen while she was gone? 

"Oh honey your hair is still wet," Jibo said in a motherly tone, as she positioned herself in front of her daughter. "You might catch a chill out there." Tenkei bent her head down and let her damp, bright auburn hair flow over to the floor in its long length. She had washed it a few hours ago, despite the fact that she had stood under the shower and wet it the night before. It was a strange hue indeed, especially against her dark skin. Since it was wet, it began to curl up some, but Jibo had no trouble twisting it up and pinning it into a bun on top of her daughter's head like she had done so many times before.

A lot of things about Tenkei didn't match really. She was a beautiful girl yes, but in such a strange way. She had relatively dark skin, yet eyes as blue as the sky on a clear day, and people that were from the same heritage didn't generally have light colored eyes. Light colored eyes were a recessive gene yet it seemed very dominant in Tenkei's make-up. She was also much taller than her mother, and lighter in terms of skin color, plus she really looked nothing like her, so everyone assumed that Tenkei took after her father, whoever he was. In other words, Tenkei was mixed, which seemed common enough nowadays. But she had come out so exotic looking that it made it more noticeable what she was, and even today, some people did not accept it. Nevertheless, Tenkei was what she was, and she ran into hostile attitudes very rarely. When she did meet up with someone that looked down on her or her mother for what she was, she hardly let it bother her. What was done was done, and that's what they get for living in a small town. Small town, small minds is what was said…

After Jibo pinned up her daughter's hair, Tenkei headed for the front door. "Be sure to lock the door securely behind me Mama," Tenkei said as she left. She didn't want to take any chances on her mother being in danger while she was gone.

"Yes ma'am," Jibo replied playfully. "Oh yeah, could you also pick up some milk, we are out of that and you will need some in the morning." Jibo handed her daughter 20 zeni as she was leaving. Once Tenkei closed the front door, she stayed and made sure she heard all the locks turning before she continued on her 30 minute journey to the market. It was a shame they couldn't afford a vehicle. It wasn't necessarily the cost of the car, the new capsule line of cars were decently priced, but the cost of fueling it as well. Jibo did plan on purchasing a new car soon, but it was going to be difficult since her meager paycheck had to pay the rent, the bills, and feed her small family of two.

The trip to the market was uneventful. The sun had long since bid the day farewell as the sky was constantly darkening and the stars were appearing in patches across the evening sky. Tenkei was glad she took her windbreaker to keep her arms warm, a slight wind was blowing, chilling her bare legs. The moon was also showing off its beauty as it began to appear over the horizon to take the sun's place in the heavens for the night. It was times like these that made Tenkei wish she had a walk man or a mini disc player to alleviate the boredom.

The trip to the market wasn't what was really bothering Tenkei. It was the trip back, for by the time Tenkei left the store, the night would be in full swing, darkness would be the dominant feature on her journey back to her home. Even at the age of 15, Tenkei was still very much afraid of the dark. She was terrified of what she couldn't see, and her plaguing nightmares did not help the situation in any way. She could mostly handle the darkness in her home so long as she hadn't had a nightmare in a while. She knew just about every shadow, and what was in every corner so there it wasn't much of a problem unless she had recently had a bad dream. Outdoors was a much different story. Tenkei could never trust the shadows of the night, she never did make it her business to become familiar with them either. Things were not what they appeared to be in the darkness, and this realization was enough to terrify the teen. She dreaded the return trip.

Once Tenkei had completed her purchases at the market, she was confronted with an indigo sky and a big, bright moon, what she had been fearing, pure night. The first half of the trip back, Tenkei wasn't really frightened, she was traveling through a rather nice neighborhood, and this made her feel relatively safe. But half way between the store and her home, an old factory was located. Tenkei had no trouble passing through it during the day, or even the early evening, so long as a little light was left. But in the depths of the night, the situation changed. The moon cast a large illuminating chunk of light onto the factory grounds, creating large patches of light here and there, enough to calm a quivering soul. But, the factory had a few towers that caught the light, and in turn cast gigantic, menacing shadows, which was enough to make a grown man shiver a little before he proceeded.

Tenkei finally reached the entrance gates to the palace of groping shadows. She stood a while, staring off into the land of fear, trying in vain to decipher whether anything was in there, waiting for her. She noticed that for the first half of the trip or so through the factory property, there was a fair amount of light to guide her. But the last third or so of the journey was in complete darkness. She could see the light of the exit, but everything around it was nearly pitch black. Tenkei gulped, then took a deep breath. _Just walk ahead, don't look at the shadows, stay in the light, you'll be ok,_ Tenkei assured herself. Clutching the brown paper bag of milk and pain medication, Tenkei proceeded across the factory property.

The young girl started out at a slow pace, her heart pounding, her ears ringing, her body trembling. Once she was in the light that the moon was graciously casting, her body began to relax a little, but her pace quickened in the process. She wanted out, and fast. In her faster pace, she still tried to conceal her presence by attempting to move as noiselessly as possible, but the sloshing of the milk, and the crinkling noises the paper bag created made Tenkei's efforts futile. Even the crunching of the dirt beneath her shoes seemed to magnify in sound.

All of these noises made Tenkei feel very conspicuous now. She knew she was sticking out like a sore thumb in the midst of old rusted buildings that she was so different from. She broke her promise to look straight ahead and began darting her eyes back and forth, across the shadows ahead, knowing she didn't want to see anything waiting for her there, not knowing what she would do if she did see something out of the ordinary. Tenkei scanned her worried eyes down the left side of the factory grounds, but seeing nothing, though it was dark and would be nearly impossible to see anything strange if she had wanted to. A scratching noise rose to her ears from the right, sending a bolt of nervous energy down her rigid spine. The frightened girl involuntarily looked to the right, in the direction of the foreign sound. But she saw nothing, only darkness.

Tenkei continued on forward, into the shadows that awaited her at the dark end of the factory grounds. Her heart was racing, it was pounding so loud she was sure anyone located nearby could actually hear it. She fought the urge to try and focus her eyes on the abyss as she entered, instead trying to keep her eyes on her destination, the exit. Beyond the gates about 500 feet ahead her, she could see the moonlight encouraging her to enter the shadows, only to be rewarded with the protection of the moonlight once she exited the dreadful factory property.

The sound of footsteps behind her stopped Tenkei dead in her tracks. She stood stark still, not breathing, not moving, in the midst of a shadow. She dared not turn around, but her ears where perked up, catching every little echo that whispered by. She could still hear the footsteps behind her, she concentrated to decipher whether the steps were approaching her or moving away. But she never had the time to tell either way, Tenkei lost her nerve and took off at a blinding speed towards the exit of the factory grounds. She didn't realize how fast she was running, but she didn't care, she just wanted out, away from the shadows, away from the darkness, and most definitely, way from whatever was behind her. _Maybe it will go away once I get outside_, Tenkei thought to herself as she ran for her life.

The jug of milk in the bag Tenkei was carrying was shaking violently, bouncing up and down, threatening to bounce right out of the bag, but Tenkei kept her arms folded firmly around it, trying to control it as she ran, but to no avail. She did not slow down to alleviate the shaking though, she kept running at break neck speed, too frightened to slow down. The entrance was so close, so close…something white blurred by Tenkei, smacking her in the forehead then bouncing off somewhere behind her. Tenkei stopped abruptly, dropping the bag and bending over in pain, holding the spot on her forehead where the foreign object struck her. It had come so fast she hadn't had time to duck, so the impact stung her a little, and stunned her a lot. What was it?

Once Tenkei gathered her bearings a few seconds later, she began to recognize the sound of the faint echo left behind when the object that struck her hit the ground and bounced off. It sounded dangerously like a medicine bottle filled with pills. Tenkei's heart skipped a beat when the realization consumed her. She frantically felt around in the paper bag hoping desperately that her fingers would find the bottle of aspirin she bought for her mother. But her fingers failed her. Tenkei ripped the jug of milk out of the bag and peered inside. Empty. 

Tenkei kicked at the paper bag angrily, tearing a hole in it, but she didn't care. What was she supposed to do about her mother's medicine? Jibo would be very upset if Tenkei returned without the aspirin, even if Tenkei explained what happened. But Tenkei knew her mother wouldn't send her out again, not at this hour. Still, Tenkei hated to disappoint her mother, it was the worst feeling in the world, so she knew she couldn't return without the medicine. Besides, her mother did have a headache, and it would turn into a migraine if she didn't take anything for it. Tenkei knew all about migraines, she had inherited them from her mother, and they were no fun at all. Tenkei couldn't bear to put her mother through that. So she had two choices: one, look for the lost bottle; or two, go back to the market and buy a new bottle. Either way, she would have to turn around, and face the owner of the footsteps, but the latter way she would have to go all the way back through the factory grounds to reach the store, then come back through again. Tenkei didn't have the gall to return and go through all this again, so she picked the first choice. It took all the strength Tenkei had to turn around. She was shaking ferociously, one could hear her teeth chattering from fear. Nothing was there. Tenkei was a little surprised, but even more relieved. Maybe she had imagined the footsteps. Tenkei began scanning the ground in front her, then further out, looking for the bottle of pills. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was sure she would be able to pick out the white amongst the black. But the longer she stood there, the more frightened she became. She wanted nothing more than to leave right then and there, but knew she had an obligation to fulfill. She knew deep down that she hadn't imagined those footsteps and whatever it was that had made them might be lurking about, waiting to jump on her. What was she to do then?

Tenkei caught a glimpse of a bit of white about 100 feet ahead. She stared hard, trying to focus in on it and saw that it resembled the shape of the medicine bottle. Tenkei then turned back around to pick up the milk and set it back inside the torn bag. She balled the bag up tightly to keep the tear from growing bigger, then she quickly turned around to make sure nothing had taken the place of the emptiness while she had her back turned. Again, nothing was there, so Tenkei quickly walked the 100 feet in front of her to retrieve the aspirin. 

Once she had the aspirin and secured it into the torn paper bag to accompany the milk, Tenkei's fears returned. She knew something had been following her, or at least walked across the factory grounds behind her earlier. She knew it was still there, some where, waiting. Tenkei backed up frantically, too afraid to turn her back one the grounds, that would be the perfect opportunity for whatever was in there to grab her, or attack. She kept looking from side to side, spinning around to make sure it hadn't snuck around to block the exit, and spinning back again to make sure it hadn't come back out from the shadows. Tenkei was so frightened, her lungs began to tighten up on her. The exit was so near, she didn't know why she hadn't broken into a quick run, but she just couldn't turn her back on the factory just yet, she needed the safety of the moonlight. But it was getting increasingly harder for Tenkei to breathe, she felt like she was hyperventilating, There was a stick in Tenkei's path but she didn't see it as she was backing up. She awkwardly stepped on it and fell backwards. She was up a few seconds later and ran the last 100 feet out of the factory, breathing heavily.

Once Tenkei was out in the open, and out of the seemingly haunted factory, she sank tiredly to her knees. She was still have some difficulty breathing, and she started coughing violently, so she dropped the bag of goods, unzipped her jacket pocket and reached into it for her inhaler to help her out some. Tenkei had been diagnosed with asthma one year ago when she had an attack after a nightmare. This perturbed the doctors. They told her mother that most asthma cases developed in young children and a lot grew out of it by the time they reached adulthood, instead of growing into it like Tenkei had. Once she calmed down, Tenkei slowly got to her feet, picked up the bag, and resumed the rest of her journey home, without glancing back at the factory. She just didn't have the nerve.

Tenkei was only about 200 feet away from the factory when she felt like she was being watched. She felt totally exposed, as if there was no place to hide if she did want to hide from it. She kept walking, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that it was watching, waiting, whatever it was. Tenkei fought the urge to look behind her, slightly glancing but then bringing her eyes quickly back around. After a minute or so, the feeling wouldn't go away, and the suspense was killing her. _The feeling will probably go away if I just have a look to make sure nothing is there._ Tenkei turned around to have a look in the direction of the factory, expecting to see nothing as she had so many times before. She was right, nothing was there….or was there? Tenkei stopped breathing. She made out a shape in the shadows of the exit to the factory, a shape that definitely wasn't there. It had a human form, but it was just a shadow, melting in with the other shadows…right? No, it was more than that. It appeared to be wearing a trench coat, with its hands held firmly behind its back. It didn't have a hat on, so she could make out from the shadow that it had short hair, so probably a man. He stood so still, she almost thought it was just a statue she had run by without noticing, but no, she knew she hadn't missed it. 

He just stood there, watching. Tenkei was scared and confused. What was he watching? Why didn't he move? Maybe he wasn't gonna hurt her, just watch her. Or maybe he wanted something, maybe he was friendly and not an enemy. Who was to know? Tenkei stood for a few minutes, as still as the man in the factory, staring him down as he was her. Then Tenkei dropped her bag of goods, all the contents spilling out in front of her. A second shadow appeared behind the first one. It too appeared to be decked out in a trench coat, its legs spread shoulder length apart, its hands clasped firmly behind its back. But this shadow did have a hat on, so she couldn't tell whether it was male or female. At any rate, Tenkei was suddenly out numbered two to one.

The first thought that ran through Tenkei's mind was to run. They were probably faster than her, but she had a good 250 foot lead, she could run pretty far, maybe even find a place to hide before they caught up. She knew that if they were hostile, running and being caught was a lot better than standing there and letting them just approach her. If they weren't hostile, then they wouldn't follow her and she would be safe. So Tenkei decided to run.

She turned around and took off, leaving the milk and aspirin behind. If she made it home safely, she would just go to the neighbor and ask him if he had any, she knew it would be weird but she wasn't about to compromise her escape by being bogged down with milk and medicine. Tenkei only made it about 50 feet before something hit her in the nose and sent her flying back about 100 feet in the air. Tenkei lost sense of where she was, but noticed when she began to fall, her stomach caught in her throat like she was on a roller coaster ride. She landed on her back with a sickening thud, pain overtaking her like the darkness she saw when she realized she was looking at the sky. What the hell had just happened?

Tenkei sat up, and felt of her nose. It had begun to bleed, and it stung very badly. Tears were already spilling over her eyes and running down her cheeks. But her fear had her adrenaline pumping in overdrive, so the pain she felt quickly dissipated. She looked ahead of her and saw that one of the people that was in the factory was about 100 feet ahead of her. _How the hell did he get there, _she asked herself. _Wait, where's the other guy?_ No sooner had she thought it before she heard someone running at her from behind. Tenkei quickly rose to her feet and turn to be bombarded with flying fists and kicks. Stunningly, Tenkei blocked quite a few of them. She had no idea where the strength or the speed was coming from, but she also knew that now was not the time to question it. 

Tenkei may have been fast, but the speed was all she had. Because she wasn't a trained fighter, and knew nothing about it really, she didn't hit back, or attempt to. Plus, lack of training caused her to tire out and her assailant started some ferocious blows. Tenkei's opponent landed a kick that sent her flying off yet again, skidding across the ground once she landed, scratching up her bare legs in the process. Tenkei writhed in pain, the blow had been almost more than she could bear.

"She's a lot tougher than we anticipated," the tired voice a woman said. "She blocked nearly everything I had. I almost had to use an energy beam on her. If she was in any shape, I might have had to. Now I see what Lord Iriyoku was talking about, imagine what she'll be like once we train her."

"Yeah I know what you mean," a male voice answered. "I saw you having a tough time with her. Either she is stronger than we thought, or you have been slacking off," he said menacingly.

"What," the woman replied evenly. "Why don't you have a go at her then, see how much better you can do, asshole."

"Fine," he answered confidently, as he started making his way toward Tenkei as she was recovering from the blows.

Tenkei had caught snippets of the dialogue between her attackers. Lord Iriyoku, who was that? And what did they mean about her being trained? Who were they? Tenkei noticed that one was making his way toward her. She didn't want to go through getting hit again, so she got up and attempted to run away again, hoping that he wouldn't magically appear in front of her like he had before. As she took off, she felt the hood of her jacket yanked back. Amazingly, the force Tenkei had when she took off caused the hood of her jacket to rip off instead of stopping her in her tracks. This surprised the male assailant a little, but he just teleported in front of her again. "Going somewhere sweetheart?" he asked in a dark, deep voice.

Since Tenkei was still running, something inside her wouldn't let her stop. Some dormant gene, some dormant instinct, began to take over. It was a feeling she had never experienced before, but it felt totally natural. She decided to plow right through the man standing in her path, she only wanted to get home. She still had no will to fight, but she would do whatever it took to protect herself. She also realized that she couldn't just go home, and lead the attackers to her house. That would put her mother in danger, so she would have take care of them first. Tenkei was then surprised that these thoughts were running through her mind so smoothly. But they were, and she knew what she had to do.

Tenkei knew that if she just ran at the man standing in front of her, he would either move, or make an attempt to hit her or kick her off in the opposite direction like he had before. So Tenkei just decide she would block whatever he did, and make an attempt herself, to land a blow. The attacker was surprised that she didn't stop when she saw him in front of her, instead she actually sped up. _What in the world is she doing, _he thought to himself. He faltered at her sudden burst of confidence, and she took this opportunity to throw her first punch. She hit him square in the jaw and this time he flew off into the distance. 

Tenkei could hear snickering behind her, as the woman that had attacked her earlier burst into a fit of laughter at her friend. He, on the other hand, found the situation far from funny. He stopped himself from flying off in mid air, still a bit stunned at the force Tenkei was able to hit him with. He stood there, floating above the two women, and much to Tenkei's surprise. _Oh my god, he can fly,_ she thought fearfully. What kind of people were they? 

Tenkei's heart sank when she realized the hopelessness of this situation. If he could fly, he must have superhuman strength, something she was pretty sure she couldn't compete with. But she was not about to just give up. She would just wait for him to come back down. And that he did, full force, almost to fast for Tenkei to see. He was obviously upset, and embarrassed in front of his partner, and he was going to make Tenkei pay. Tenkei hardly had time to blink before she felt the blow in her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her, and knocking her body back several feet into a near by abandoned house located outside the factory grounds. She burst straight though the rotten wood and nearly through the whole house. The last wall was a little more sturdy and it stopped her momentum. 

Now, Tenkei was a wreck. Her hair had come undone from its bun and was flowing everywhere, it was nearly as long as she was tall. Plus it was still damp, and now it was curling up, sticking to her legs and her clothes. Her back was in agony, her abdomen felt like it was just going to fall out. Her jacket was torn and she had various cuts on her arms and her back from flying through the house. And now, she had a headache. Tenkei tried to open her eyes, but there was a hole in the roof and the moonlight was shining right through it and onto her face, blinding her slightly. She feebly raised her hand to feel of her nose, it was now throbbing un-controllably and she felt a mass of blood following from it. She hadn't noticed that it was still bleeding until now. She was very thankful the man hadn't decided to hit her in the face again, she was sure her nose would have been crushed. She wasn't sure it wasn't already crushed, since she couldn't see it.

Tenkei raised her broken up body to its upright posture. She could hardly stand, her legs felt weak, but it was wearing off, some of her strength was returning from no where really. Strange. Tenkei balled up the cuff of her windbreaker and pressed it to her nose to block the flow of blood she was tasting on her lips. She looked down and saw her white shirt splattered with drops she hadn't known were dropping until now. She wiped her other hand across her chin to find it too was caked in the red goo. Disgusted, Tenkei used her other sleeve to clean her face off as best she could without being able to see. Once she was finished, Tenkei didn't know what to do next. Should she go outside and face them, or wait for them to come looking for her in the house? She decided to take it outside, there wasn't much room to work with inside. 

When Tenkei emerged from the old house, it seemed the man and the woman were totally surprised. The man had expected for the blow to knock her out. "What, is she made of fucking steel?" he asked, flabbergasted at her endurance.

"She's a saiyajin, what do you expect?" the woman answered. "The lord said something like this might happen, so don't act so surprised."

"Well yeah, but she's a female," the male answered. "Iriyoku said the boy would probably be the most trouble. She's proving him wrong. I put everything I had into that hit."

"Well we haven't even gotten to him yet," the woman replied. "She might only be giving us a taste of what we are in for. But that is what the reinforcements are for. Now lets end this so we can collect the others." The man nodded to his partner, and they both charged towards the girl. Tenkei got back into a defensive stance, just preparing to block blows. She really didn't know what to do. That fighting instinct that had awoken earlier seemed to go back to sleep when she got knocked into the house, leaving her without a plan.

The two attackers hit Tenkei full force, punches and kicks, acrobatic moves was all she saw. Tenkei was just backing up, using her speed to block what she could, knowing she wasn't going to last too much longer since she was getting tired. Everyone once in a while, a hit landed, but Tenkei held her ground. The missed blocks were frequently growing though, and soon pain was all Tenkei knew as her two assailants began to rip her apart. She felt a kick to the ribs, and punch on the chin, a knee to her thigh, then she stopped recognizing which points of her body were getting hit. Tenkei wondered if she would ever see her mother again. She wondered if she would even see the next day, they way they were going at her, she was afraid they were trying to kill her instead of take her away to "train," whatever that meant.

Finally, Tenkei knew she could block no more, so she tried fighting back, she wasn't going down without at least trying to defend herself in the end. She used what strength she had left to swing out, in no direction in particular. She landed a hit on someone's cheek, temporarily lowering her enemies to one. The fighters had been careless and hadn't expected Tenkei to fight back, that is why it was so easy for her to get a hit in. She saw that she had hit the guy again, so she was left with the girl. The woman lunged at her, seemingly more upset than usual, and Tenkei held the palm of her hand up at the last minute, causing the woman to ram her nose into it. The woman was stunned and instinctively grabbed her nose, bringing her defenses down. Tenkei used this opportunity to grab the woman by her hair and bash her face against her knee, which she did with ease. It seemed when Tenkei thought she was drained, a small boost of confidence was all she needed to get a little energy back.

Meanwhile, the male attacker had quickly recovered from the surprised hit, but he was fuming. He seemed to lose some control over himself, and he screamed in rage. Tenkei was taken aback, but then in turn, returned his screaming with her own, but her screams were filled with fear. The man showed his face to her, only for her to see he had no face! Just like the men in her dream the knight before, shoving her helpless body into the hole. His head was just white, almost plastic like, with a few ridges here and there, but virtually no facial features, except a small slit for a mouth for him to scream through. His voice was changing too, it was no longer human. He sounded like a beast, a bear or something wild, and dangerous.

The woman Tenkei had just taken out also began to transform. She didn't seem to be able to help it, but she began to look and sound like her partner. Tenkei was ready to faint, this just couldn't be happening. It was them, it was them in her dream last night, it was them here and now. As much as Tenkei hoped that this was just a nightmare, she knew it was every bit real. The male, after he finished his wailing, changed back to his human form, then over took the stunned Tenkei. He kicked her with all his might, as he had before, and she flew off into the distance, as she had done before. Once she hit the ground, Tenkei slid across the earth like a rag doll, on her belly, scraping up her hands as she tried to stop herself. Once she finally did stop, she noticed that she was in a rut, and was even more surprised when she turned and discovered that she had made it. 

Tenkei was out of breath, bleeding badly from some of the cuts she acquired earlier, and her body feeling like nothing more than a sack of throbbing bones. This time, she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to get up if he kept coming at her. She looked up and saw the two beasts floating high above her, both back in their human shapes.

"What are you?" Tenkei managed to sputter, knowing that it might be the last thing she got to say as she tried desperately to sit up. 

"All you need to know young one," the man answered from the heavens, "is that your life is about to change, for the better." He then began to form an energy beam in the palm of his outstretched hand. At first it was just a flicker of light, then it began to grow into a huge ball of power.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked as she watched her partner prepare to attack. "The lord said to bring her back alive you know…"

"I'm not going to kill her," the man snapped back. "Just put her out so we can get the fuck out of here. After this, we need to release the reinforcements on the next one, and forget about going through this again."

"Well you better make sure she stay alive," the woman said.

Tenkei couldn't make any sense out of what they were saying, or any sense of what was going on for that matter. All she could really focus on was the glowing ball of light in front of her. _How did he do that,_ she thought, placing a finger in the middle of her cheek, then running it down her face, something she always did when she was in deep thought. She was to the point of delirium, when she noticed the glowing ball was growing even bigger, and fast. Not until the last second did Tenkei realize the ball was growing because it was coming after her. She didn't even get a chance to scream…


	10. Chapter 10 Just Like Old Times

Chapter 10: Just Like Old Times

"Ooof," Tenkei grunted as she felt the impact of the blast consume her body. Tenkei closed her eyes at the last second when she realized the ball of energy was headed for her. But when it hit her body, the impact jolted her eyes open, and she saw that her body was flying away from the blast! Tenkei watched as the blast flew off to hit the ground a ways off, shaking the earth as it created a hole about the size of a small house.

Tenkei was still flying away from the blast, when she realized someone had a hold of her. She saw a pair of nicely toned arms wrapped around her body and wondered who in the world this could be, when the two seemed to lose control of the momentum and skidded across the ground while trying to stop. Her savior took most of the fall on his back, shielding her already beaten up body. There was a slight elevation in the ground and when the unknown hero's body hit it, the contact sent them both rolling uncontrollable until he could no longer hold onto her and they both flew off in slightly different directions, rolling and bumping along the way. They finally came to a stop within 10 feet of each other, and Tenkei rolled over on her stomach, dazed and confused. _What just happened,_ her confused mind tried to decipher. She was still alive, which was a miracle, but who had saved her?

"Are you okay?" A masculine voice asked tenderly.

"I'm still alive…" she managed to whisper, unaware of how weak she really was until she spoke. She slowly turned her head in the direction of the voice, since she only had the energy to turn it slowly. They had rolled into some shadows void of moonlight, plus Tenkei's vision was blurred from her earlier bout, making it difficult to make out what she was looking at. She saw the outline of a young man, with rather bright colored eyes and hair, but that was all she could make out before she started to slip into unconsciousness.

Before Tenkei lost her grip on staying awake, she heard someone else land beside her body. "Is that her?" Another male voice asked, a little higher in pitch, but a boy nonetheless. He reached down and gently grabbed her arm, trying to help her to her feet. Tenkei felt like a dead weight, but she but as much energy into trying to stand as he was into trying to help her up. The other boy that had saved her got up himself and grabbed her other arm to aide. Tenkei was finally upright, or as upright as she could stand, and took a look at the second boy that had arrived. He had dark, shaggy hair and dark eyes, and now that her eyes were adjusting to the dark, she saw that he had a silly grin plastered on his face.

"Hey you okay?" Asked another genuinely concerned, yet somewhat cheery male voice. "That was some spill you just took."

"Yes, I think so now," Tenkei answered feebly. 

*****

Meanwhile, Iriyoku's henchmen were baffled to find that they had missed their target.

"What the fuck?" The male asked, flabbergasted to see Tenkei fly away almost faster than his eyes could follow as his blast flew off to damage some dirt rather than her.

"Where did she go?" The female asked. She too, was surprised that Tenkei had the strength to fly away, why, she didn't even know Tenkei could fly…

"Wait a minute," the shocked female said after she pondered a bit. "That bitch can't fly. Iriyoku said they didn't know how to."

"What the--" the man started, when he received a huge blow to the back of his head by an unseen force. His body went careening at break neck speed towards the earth below.

"Klihg!" The woman exclaimed as she watched her partner sail toward the ground like a lightning bolt. She noticed a shadow cover up the moonlight hitting her back, and took this opportunity to turn around swinging, connected her fist with the hard jaw that belonged to Goku. She winced in pain at the connection, but Goku's body was sent flying back a few hundred feet, caught by surprise. She then proceeded to fly after Goku and pound him to a pulp, when she remembered that Klihg was still hurt, so she changed her direction and headed in the direction of his fall.

As she approached her friend, she noticed that he was already up and engaged in a battle with a greenish colored Earthling. He seemed to be having a little trouble with this foe, the green man wasn't beating him, but Klihg wasn't beating the green man either. They were at a stalemate.

_Where did these people come from,_ the woman thought as she stopped in midair, debating on whether to help Klihg or go after the initial attacker. She looked to her left, and far off into the distance, she saw a yellow copter. A few more people emptied from the inside. Klihg noticed this as well.

"Juuneh," Klihg called out while he was still engaged in a heated battle with Piccolo. "We've got more company, call out the reinforcements! HURRY!" 

"I don't think so," Piccolo grunted, sending an energy beam in Juuneh's direction. The blast was quick, and caught Juuneh off guard, hitting her in the shoulder and knocking her out of the air.

"BASTARD!" Klihg roared, as he began to transform to his true self for the second time that night.

"Hmm," Piccolo murmured, as he powered up to try and counter this new form. "What is this?"

*****

Juuneh landed with a large thud on some rocky ground located near the old house that Tenkei had blasted through earlier. Her body was reeling in pain, but she had heard what Klihg said, to release the reinforcements. Juuneh reached into her trench coat pocket and pulled out a small remote control. The "reinforcements" were a sanction of the militia Iriyoku had built up from the various planets he had conquered. They weren't as strong or as fight smart as Iriyoku's special forces that he sent to Earth to station themselves. Iriyoku had also tested the Majin magic he learned on these soldiers to see how effective it was. It seemed to work very well on these men, so Iriyoku took this as a guarantee on how well it would work on Brolli's children once he acquired them.

Iriyoku also took this opportunity to tweak the spell a bit. He changed the spell in that the Majin inside of his soldiers would only come out when he wanted it to, so that if any got out of hand while under the spell, and miraculously became stronger than he, he would simply turn it off, almost like an android switch, then he would dispose of them promptly to avoid any more trouble.

Iriyoku made special remote controls for his top elitists, Klihg and Juuneh among the few, to lead the militia in hunting down and bringing back the precious cargo. They did not expect to use the reinforcements unless the kids got out of hand and little too much for Klihg and Juuneh to handle without transforming. Iriyoku gave the two strict orders not to transform, for they might attract the Z-senshi's attention. Though Iriyoku said that if they did trigger interest in the mind of the Z-fighters, the henchmen and company would be finished gathering what they came for and off the planet before the Z-fighters arrived in time to actually see what happened. But Iriyoku didn't even want them to get wind that something strange was going on, he wanted a complete surprise attack to take place once he had everything in order, totally catching the warriors off guard, and totally unaware that anything had happened before they were taken out. Iriyoku knew that if the Z-fighters sensed high power levels, yet didn't find anything, that they would begin training right away, knowing that that power would be back.

Their increased strength could hinder his project, for Goku or Vegeta might reach an even higher lever of Super Saiyajin and Iriyoku did not want to run the risk of that happening.

Juuneh flipped the switch on the remote to call up the reinforcements. Out from the shadows of the houses, buildings, and brush lining the path from Tenkei's home to the market rose people that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. They looked just like humans as well, much to the credit of Iriyoku's magical intervention. They had lay dormant and totally undetectable until summoned upon, just as the spell intended. Now that they were awake, their strength was aided by Majin magic, and the Z-fighters were in for old-fashioned showdown.

*****

"What's that?" Gohan asked as he and the rest of the Z-senshi exited the copter, leaving Shinobi and Zeusu behind since they were not ready to fight yet.

"You two stay behind," Krillin ordered on his way out before he noticed that they had more company. "Wouldn't want to lose you to that tyrant after we found you first."

"Looks like more trouble," 18 answered, as if unaffected by the new threat. About 20 new shadows appeared from nowhere, almost like waking zombies from a horror film. Though their ki signatures had been relatively non-existent before, now that they were revived, the Z-fighters could feel large ki readings radiating from these human forms.

"Wow, do you guys feel that?" Yamcha asked in a low voice, with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "That's a lot of energy!"

"Yeah, I know," Gohan, answered, his expression transformed to one of a serious Saiyajin. Yamcha and the rest of the Z-fighters dropped into fighting stances, determination the only readable attribute on their faces. But these ki signatures they were reading were topping that of a level two Super Saiyajin. No problem for Goku, since he could ascend to that of level three, and Gohan who had achieved a Mystic form years ago. But, the rest of the fighters weren't that strong, or nearly at that. Android 18 might be able to hold her own, but not for long. Goten and Trunks if pushed hard enough to ascend could cause some damage, but they couldn't successfully pull off a fusion right now, since they hadn't performed one since they were tikes, and their power levels now probably didn't match which was crucial to have a successful fusion. Krillin, Videl, Tien and Yamcha were leagues below their friends in energy levels. The lot hadn't trained hard in years so they were quite rusty, and really unprepared to take on a battle parallel to that of about 20 level 2 Super Saiyajins. They had mentally prepared for battle, knowing it was possible that they might engage in one, but they weren't expecting strength like this.

*****

"Whoa, do you feel that Trunks?" Goten asked uneasily, as his body sensed the growing number of high power levels seeming to appear out of nowhere.

"This is not good," Trunks replied, unconsciously raising his guard.

"What's going on?" Tenkei asked, still not quite sure where she was or what was happening. Her wits were scattered about after her duel. Goten and Trunks took one look at each other and nodded. They walked Tenkei back a few feet where the remains of a shed stood, still in the depths of the shadows and a relatively good hiding place for the time being.

"Hide here," Trunks whispered as he and Goten gently sat Tenkei down. "We have to go check something out." Tenkei just responded with a look of confusion barely readable in the dark, but Goten and Trunks were off in the direction of the activity before she got a chance to ask for a thorough explanation.

"Whatever it is, its stronger than us Trunks," Goten said as they neared the battle area. "And there are a lot of them, look." Goten pointed in the direction of the clearing that Tenkei and Iriyoku's henchman had just battled in. In the midst of the moonlight the new opponents gathered. They were dressed in the same attire that Klihg and Juuneh arrived in, all black with black trench coats covering them. They looked totally normal, except their zombie-like expressions plastered on their faces. Plus there was immense power vibrating through the air, radiating from their bodies. It was stifling.

Goku had long since recovered from the punch delivered to him by Juuneh, and had already landed about 100 feet from where Goten and Trunks now stood. He too was sizing up the situation. _Hmm, _he thought to himself, _there are about 10 of us and 20 or so of them, about two fighters apiece. But, we can't just defeat these guys, they will just follow us. Sadly, they must be destroyed, so they cannot report any of their findings back to Iriyoku, that way he doesn't get wind that we know about him, then he won't be sending out forces targeted directly at us when these guys don't return. That will buy us enough time to train Brolli's children for when they do finally come. _

Goku was quite surprised with himself after he finished his analyzing. He felt more like himself now than he had in the past few weeks. He hoped it would continue this way. But once Goku figured out what needed to be done, he realized it was a lot easier said. These new opponents would be no push over, plus a lot of the gang were now aging, and just not strong enough to wipe these guys out like Goku knew they needed to be. 

Piccolo and his adversary decided to pause in their fight and watch the reinforcements gather themselves. Once Piccolo sensed that Goku had flown back and touched down, he glanced over in his direction, and started trying to leap in Goku's train of thought. Once he got the connection, he sent it out to Gohan, Trunks and Goten, who all nodded at the same time in agreement. In the end, it was up to them.

"Yamcha, Krillin, Tien and Videl," Piccolo semi-whispered, "I want you guys to fall back to the ship and protect our cargo. 18, it would probably be best if you stayed, but if it starts getting tough for you, I'd appreciate it, along with the rest of us, if you fell back as well." 18 nodded, knowing she wasn't one to take orders from anyone, but also knowing that her safety was more important in the end and Piccolo knew that.

"Right," the rest of the Z-fighters said in unison, as they slowly but cautiously backed up towards the copter where Zeusu and Shinobi watched with curious blue eyes.

"What's going on?" Zeusu asked quietly, yet his eyes filled with wonder and anticipation. It looked as if there was going to be a fight. Memories of the World Tournament flooded his mind.

"We've got a little company is all," Krillin answered as he positioned himself beside Zeusu to get a good view. "It's been a while since I've seen a good match." Krillin tried to lighten the mood, as not to scare Zeusu and Shinobi, but he knew deep down that this was not a guaranteed win. He crossed his fingers.

"Muahahahaha…" a devilish voice rang from the heavens. Everyone looked up to see Klihg cackling like a mad man, or a mad Jepidian rather. "I see that Juuneh got to the reinforcements after all. We will let you all fight them first, you shouldn't last. But if you so happen to break past them, no worries, you get my partner and I next, and believe me, you won't like that. Best if you all just give up now. You can't possibly protect this planet from what's bond to happen."

"I really wish Father had decided to come," Trunks murmured. Goten just nodded. Vegeta's help would be greatly appreciated right now.

"Fine," Piccolo grunted, breaking down into his fighting form once more. "Let's do this." Piccolo knew that in reality, he was no match for any being with the power of a level 2 Super Saiyajin, so he knew that he himself might have to fall back to the copter if things got too intense. But he was definitely going to give it all he had, in hopes to perhaps tire some of them out. He knew that Goku and Gohan had a pretty good chance of putting them all away once they were worn out, they may even be able to do it sooner than that. But it would be difficult with 20 of them constantly bombarding them with blasts and attacks, and coming from such strong beings could turn the tides in the total opposite direction.

Android 18 launched the first assault on the group of zombies, cracking one square in the back of his head with a swift kick, sending the creature flying off into the night.

"Great job 18!" Krillin yelled, pumping his fist into the air and startling the rest of the group located in the copter with his sudden outburst. Zeusu and Shinobi were just plain shocked. How in the world could she kick a person hard enough to make them fly through the air? That was supposed to only be in the movies! Zeusu's surprise was short-lived though, 18's strength only reminded him of the near impossible moves he saw performed in the tournament so many years ago. But Shinobi had never seen anything like this.

Android 18's attack started the battle, and everyone began launching assaults on one another. Goku immediately powered up to level 3 Super Saiyajin and started delivering damage to the 5 or 6 aliens that decided to pursue him. Gohan was surrounded by three of the foes, but his weekend trainings with his father had helped him keep his Mystic level on top of things, border lining the power of level 3 Super Saiyajin, if not passing the level at times, depending on how hard he was pushed. Right now he was being forced to dodge a series of blasts while trying to send some back in the direction of his assailants. 

The other fighters also had about three opponents apiece, and not much luck between them. Goten and Trunks were barely strong enough to handle one level two Super Saiyajin, so three apiece was really pushing it. Neither of them fully understood the strength of Iriyoku's army and what a threat it truly was until now. Yeah, Goku may be the strongest fighter in the universe, but if he were forced to tackle this army alone, which would consist of several thousand men of the same strength or stronger than these zombies, it would be near impossible to win. Goku would eventually wear down, and then it would all be over, even with Gohan and Vegeta's help. He would definitely need more help. 

Piccolo and Android 18 were now fully prepared to step out of the fight, but their opponents didn't seem to catch on to their gesture. They were completely overwhelmed with the power of these zombie-like fighters, yet it didn't seem that they were easing up to give them a chance to escape. Ki blasts were seen shooting off in every direction, lighting the night sky up like fireworks. Multiple kicks were thrown, punches landed, hits missed, all out brawling. 

Tenkei watched from the shadows of her makeshift-hiding place with fear. She could tell that Goten and Trunks were having a very difficult time, but her eyes couldn't follow Goku and Gohan's movement. They were just too fast for her at this stage, so she couldn't tell how they were fairing. Piccolo and Android 18 were out of her view.

From the copter, the rest of the Z-senshi watched, not quite sure what to make of the situation. They weren't having much luck following the fight either, though could tell that most of the participants for the Z-fighters were struggling.

"You guys are gonna teach us to fight like that?" Shinobi asked in amazement.

"If we get a chance, yeah," Yamcha answered.

Goku wasn't having any trouble knocking his opponents. His shear power was enough to nearly rip their heads off when he landed a punch or a kick. But as soon as they recovered, which was rather quickly due to their Majin forms, they would just keep coming back for more. Even though their energy was about a level below Goku's according to the scale used to determine the power of a Saiyajin, their hits on his body could still cause some damage, especially if all 5 of his assailants decided to assault at the same time. _I need to be rid of these guys so I can help the others and we can get the hell outta here,_ Goku thought to himself as he watch the group he just torched rise up again and head toward him.

Piccolo and Android 18 were now on the run, dodging and deflecting energy beams along the way. The two were exhausted, but as much as they wanted to rest, the zombies weren't up for it. _Goku do something, _Piccolo thought, trying to send the message to Goku that he and Android 18 were in trouble and wouldn't last too much longer since they were tiring out.

Gohan seemed to be really the only fighter handling his foes with ease. Mainly because he didn't have 5 or 6 trying to come at him like Goku did, but since their power was nearly the same (for a few years, Gohan did not train and lost some of his power, but as soon as he began training with his father again, he slowly gained most of it back) it was much easier for Gohan to free himself up and catch his breath in between blow-outs. At this time he was watching his opponents gather themselves to launch another attack on him, but they weren't fully ready, so Gohan let his gaze rest on his brother. Goten was having a rather difficult time. He was tiring out, and his blows and blasts were causing some damage, but not enough to give him a breather. Where he was tiring, it seemed his foes were not affected as much. When Goten hit them, they hit him back, harder. _Shit,_ Gohan thought as his competitors finally returned, _I need to hurry up with these guys and help my kid bro. _He hadn't seen Trunks anywhere, but in the back of his mind Gohan was sure he needed help as well.

Trunks was fairing a bit better than Goten since he had trained more than his best friend and thus was a little stronger than him still, but he too was running out of time. _As soon as we get out of this, _Trunks thought as he dodged an energy beam, and blocked a kick, _I've got to get Goten in my gravity chamber to train with me. We need to bring back Gotenks. _Just the thought of Gotenks perked up Trunks' spirit, and a new source of energy began to surge throughout his body. Trunks powered up even more, not really knowing what to do with this new energy, it seemed to invigorate him. One assailant was heading for Trunks head on, with the others close behind. Trunks thrust forward, catching him in the jaw, then spun around and kicked one in the chest on his spin. He elbowed the third in the neck and watch as they all went sprawling toward the ground below. Elated, Trunks decided that rather than waiting for them to get up and come at him, he would bring the fight to them instead, and sailed at lightning speed to his foes.

Goten caught this activity out of the corner of his eye while he was being backed down by his opponents. _Amazing_, he thought, losing his train of thought for a split second, just enough time for one of his assailants to punch him in the face, and out of the sky. Goten's body hit the ground with enough impact to cause a small tremor, which Tenkei felt from her hiding position, and the rest of the Z-fighters felt as the vibrations reached the copter. "Ohh you're gonna be sorry for that one pal," Goten whispered, enraged from insult and embarrassment. Out of sheer determination Goten jumped and met his oncoming attackers with a surprise Kamehameha, sending all three of them skidding across the earth.

_Wow,_ Gohan thought as he saw some zombies fly by from his brother's direction. _Good job little bro. You and Trunks might be able to handle yourselves after all._

Piccolo and Android 18 weren't having any such luck though, and Goku knew this as he tried in vain to put his opponents down. He didn't want to exert too much power, so that he wouldn't destroy everything around them, and he didn't want to use all of his power as a Super Saiyajin 3. He hoped it would take less power to demolish these monsters. But it seemed that the more time he took, the less Piccolo and 18 had, and anything could happen to them if he didn't step in. "Alright, time to end this." 

Goku powered up to about 75% of his full Super Saiyajin 3 power, and started dealing out damage accordingly. Two zombies decided to attack, and Goku just grabbed them by the neck and smashed their heads together, causing their skulls to crush upon impact and leaving them fatally wounded as they fell back to earth. Goku cringed at the site, but knew that it had to be done. As the bodies descended, their deaths triggered a transformation to their true selves, which was unlike that of Klihg and Juuneh. They were totally different creatures. Their faces were too mangled to make out any features though. Goku hadn't realized the force he had used until he saw the damage done. _What a shame,_ he thought, as he countered the attacks of two more zombies.

Gohan saw what his dad was doing and decided to follow suit. He powered up and sent his fist directly into the chest of one of his oncoming attackers. Gohan had meant to aim for his head, but the guy changed his direction at the last second and got caught in the chest, where Gohan's arm went straight though. The zombie heaved, trying desperately to breathe. Gohan slowly pulled his arm from the zombie's chest, dripping of blood and a little tissue. The assailant fell from the sky and breathed in for the last time. He couldn't quite breathe back out, and never had a chance to as he life seeped away.

"Damn," Gohan whispered, as he too noticed that the being transformed to its true self in its death, and didn't look anything like Klihg when he watched him transform during his bout with Piccolo. _Perhaps they are just slaves,_ Gohan thought, as he spun around and sent a ki blast through another's chest. _But there isn't anything we can do about that now._

Once Goku and Gohan took care of the fighters they were being chased by, they headed over in Piccolo and 18's direction to assist them. Deftly, they put all of those zombies out of their misery. 

"It's about time," a tired Piccolo said, once he was out of danger. He had taken a lot of blows and was pretty banged up, but he hung in there until Goku arrived.

Trunks and Goten were still battling with opponents, holding their own in the fight, which now was pretty even since the two boys had ascended a little (Trunks was now at a level 2 from previous training even though it had been a year since he trained in his chamber, Goten was not quite level two yet) and worn their opponents down but not quite strong enough to put them out. So Goku and Gohan stepped in and took care of them as well.

"Excellent job boys," Goku said once everything had calmed down. "You guys did great!"

"Thanks Dad," Goten beamed. 

"Thank you, Goku," Trunks replied.

"Yeah," Gohan added, "I think you guys got a little stronger there too."

"I feel stronger," Trunks agreed, flexing a muscle.

"Where's the girl?" Gohan asked as Piccolo and 18 touched down to join them.

"She's right over--" Trunks was cut off by the sight of a blinding light force illuminating in the night sky.

"What the hell is that?" Goten yelled, shielding his eyes.

"I don't know," Piccolo said, holding his arm up to block. "But 18 and I need to get out of here, we are spent. Where is the girl, we need to take her back to the ship with us."

"That won't be necessary," a voice boomed from the sky, "she will be coming with us once this is all over."

****

Author's note: Sorry this took so long, heh. I'll try to be quicker with the next chapter, but I can't promise anything. Lack of time and writer's block seem to be in control here, lol.


End file.
